West Ham's fantastic record away from home came to a disappointing end as they went down 2-0 to promotion rivals Sunderland.
On a dark day at the Stadium of Light, second half goals from Kevin Kyle and Jeff Whitley ended the Hammers' run of 14 league matches unbeaten on their travels, and matters were made worse by the loss of influential winger Matt Etherington - stretchered off early on with a badly-bruised shin.
Pardew had made one change following Tuesday's emphatic 5-0 win over Wimbledon, as David Connolly failed to shake off a thigh strain picked up in the closing stages of the clash against his old side. That gave Marlon Harewood the chance to move up into his preferred centre-forward role, while Jobi McAnuff came in on the right side of midfield for his second start in a Hammers shirt.
Sadly, the Hammers boss was forced into another switch after just 15 minutes, when the midweek hat-trick hero Etherington saw his afternoon come to a premature end following a crunching - and seemingly unlawful - challenge from Sunderland defender Stephen Wright.
How referee Richard Beeby deemed the tackle a fair one was beyond most present, but that argument paled into insignificance as Etherington was whisked off to hospital for a precautionary X-Ray. Pardew thankfully confirmed afterwards that a fracture had been ruled out - and the Hammers boss will certainly hope the 23-year-old makes a speedy return, for his contribution was sorely missed in a lacklustre performance today.
Neither side managed to find their feet in a scrappy and tense first half - McAnuff's sweetly struck volley straight at Mart Poom in the 27th minute was the only shot on target throughout the entire 45 minutes - but the hosts came out after the interval in determined mood and took the lead on the hour.
Using their most dangerous tactic - a long, high free-kick into the penalty area - Sunderland launched in a ball that wasn't properly dealt with by the Hammers defence, and Scottish international striker Kyle was on hand to poke the ball home from close range.
Hammers might have drawn level almost immediately when Harewood robbed McCartney on the right and slipped the ball across the six-yard box towards Nigel Reo-Coker, but Wright did superbly to loop the ball up and over the bar to deny the visitors an instant equaliser.
Sadly, Hammers didn't look like breaking through again after that, and the hosts made the game safe with just 15 minutes remaining, thanks to a goal that owed more to poor defending than quality finishing. Racing away on the counter-attack, Kyle released strike-partner Tommy Smith, whose low shot was parried by Stephen Bywater.
The danger seemed to be over as the loose ball rolled towards Christian Dailly, but the Hammers skipper somehow failed to clear and midfielder Whitley slid in to charge the ball into the roof of the net.
A flurry of late bookings made it a frustrating end to the afternoon as Hammers' hopes of a comeback slipped away, leaving Pardew to reflect on a fruitless and disappointing trip to the north east.
"We didn't play well today and it turned out to be a very frustrating afternoon. It was a real blow to lose Matty - and David Connolly before the game - and we had a few problems offensively, we couldn't carve them open or create enough chances.
"Thankfully Matty's injury doesn't look too serious - it isn't a fracture - but I thought it was a poor tackle, very high, and it cost us dearly, because we missed his quality.
"I'm disappointed that we haven't given a better account of ourselves here. I thought the referee made it very frustrating for us, the game wasn't allowed to flow, but we didn't take out our frustrations in the right way.
"We'll bounce back, though, and I still believe that automatic promotion is a realistic target. The pressure is beginning to tell at the top - Norwich have lost today - and I'm confident that we can still get the results to push us up there."