Premier League: Newcastle United v Manchester United full-time report

Patrice Evra

Newcastle United 0 Manchester United 3

Manchester United responded bullishly yet typically to their first home defeat of 2012 by comfortably handing Newcastle their second home loss in the same period.

The wheels on the bus were supposedly coming off after the 2-3 defeat to Tottenham but they went round and round at St James' Park taking Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra and Tom Cleverley via the goals. 

Evans scored only his second senior goal for the club when he thumped in with his head from a Wayne Rooney corner and then Rooney delivered again from the opposite side for Evra to steal in front of Demba Ba and nod past Kevin Harper. 

After the dam had bust Newcastle could do little to stem the flow and United could well have been four or five-up at half-time, but as it was Cleverley's sublime curling effort from distance was the only goal in a second half that mirrored the first.

After a set back, it is the test of a title-pretender's credentials to immiediately hit back and after many deemed the loss to Tottenham a real dent Manchester United's early season they could not have hit back more emphatically here. And it was typical of Sir Alex Ferguson's teams throughout the last two decades.

They hit early, and they hit hard, with Rooney especially dangerous in more of a fifth-midfielder's role behind Robin van Persie and he was without doubt the man-of-the-match, setting up two goals. The first was his inswinging corner from the right-hand side that met Evans with some force but he managed to keep the effort down and on target.

Evra's headed second was more clever than brutal, with the left-back arcing a run infront of the majority of stationary Newcastle defenders to nip infront of his tracker Ba and flick the ball between Harper's hands.

Danny Welbeck should have undoubtedly made it 3-0 before half-time when he pounced on Harper's sloppy control of a back-pass and stole the ball, but sent it wide of a gaping, empty net. 

And so it was up to Cleverley to add a the third with a wonderous effort that may have been meant for the head of van Persie at the far post in the 71st minute. To the left of the penalty area and with some angle to compute, he steered the ball high and looping over the outstretched hand of Harper into the top corner of the net. He may claim it was intentional, but such matters are trivial when your side moves above your city rivals into second in the table.

Lyall Thomas

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