This was a must win game for Manchester United and up until the 88th minute of the game, it had looked as though they could be leaving St James’ Park with only one point. Despite being unconvincing, lacking ideas and any incisiveness, they managed to come away with three points.
Radamel Falcao started on the bench as Marouane Fellaini was elected to play off of Wayne Rooney, with Ashely Young and Angel Di Maria occupying the wide areas.
It only took 36 seconds of the game for the first chance. Mehdi Abeid lost possession in the centre circle as he was dispossessed by Wayne Rooney, who then played Di Maria in. As he was approaching the goal he looked a man short of confidence as he neither beat his man nor managed to get a shot away.
After that, the game had settled as Man United enjoyed the majority of possession as it was evident that Newcastle were looking to capitalise on the break through their pace in their side with Riviere, Obertan and Cisse.
On the 9th minute, there were strong calls for a penalty as Chris Smalling had bought down the lively Emmanuel Riviere. Somehow the referee had waved the appeals away as it seemed obvious that the United centre back had brought the Newcastle player down.
After that, there were positives in United’s play as Angel Di Maria and Ashley Young were playing on the wings and stretching the pitch and the play in midfield was much quicker. However, as has been the case for the majority of the season, there was no cutting edge in United’s play despite having the large share of possession.
Although, in the 25th minute, Ashley Young with the deftest of touches, played the ball into Rooney’s path but the United Captain dragged a great chance wide as he tried to delicately dink the ball over Tim Krul.
As United were really pinning Newcastle back with constant pressure, Fabricio Coloccini slipped and allowed Di Maria to play the ball into Rooney but he was crowded out of possession. That passage of play was telling of the first half; potential for so much but the reality was that there was really little in the game. In fact the most exciting part of the first half was when we saw Louis van Gaal come into the technical area for the first time barking orders to Ander Herrera.
The first half ended at a sour note as Jonny Evans and Papiss Cisse became entangled and as they broke away from each other, they appeared to spit at each other. They should expect a call from the F.A in the morning after the unsavoury incident.
In the second half, Newcastle had started much more brightly and should have, and would have scored were it not for David De Gea producing a fantastic save to again deny Riviere. The save was reminiscent of Peter Schmeichel’s save in the game against Inter Milan in 1999 as he clawed Zamorano’s header. Although in this incident, Riviere has shot across goal but De Gea had made himself big to deny the Frenchman just like The Great Dane.
Minutes later, Krul produced arguably even better saves to deny Man United taking the lead. Fellaini had controlled Di Maria’s cross and smashed the ball across goal for Krul to save, but the Dutchman had leaped up and dived across goal to deny Ashley Young who must have thought he had scored as he struck the rebound.
Then in the 58th minute, Adnan Januzaj had come on to replace Angel Di Maria. Despite Di Maria losing possession a couple of times in the game, he was at the centre of a large majority of the positive play from the Red Devils and it was no coincidence that when he went off, United at times looked void of any attacking intent as there was no dynamism or incisiveness.
Jonas Gutierrez, who had beaten Testicular Cancer, was introduced into the game on the 63rd minute and the entire stadium erupted with noise to welcome him into the game. It was a moving and memorable moment for Gutierrez and his introduction spurred some life into Newcastle’s game.
The Magpies had created a couple of chances, albeit from mistakes from Man United, notably from Ander Herrera who was caught dithering on the ball by Perez, who then played Cisse through on goal one on one with the defender but he screwed his shot disappointingly wide.
A goal finally came in the 88th minute courtesy of Ashely Young. It was suicidal defending from Newcastle as they had managed to nullify Wayne Rooney as he tried to force some space on the edge of the box, but as they had won the ball back, Tim Krul attempted to clear the ball but played it straight into the path of Young who slotted it home.
That was not the end of the action as again, De Gea had saved United from dropping points. Papiss Cisse thought he had scored as he headed the ball into the corner of the goal but De Gea did terrifically well to dive across goal and claw the ball away.
United managed to hold on to the victory and earn a precious three points in their quest of finishing in the top four.
