Louis van Gaal insisted that Manchester United threw away two points after a pulsating 3-3 draw with Newcastle United.
Paul Dummett’s last-minute deflected equaliser ensured that the Magpies came away with a share of the spoils after Wayne Rooney had seemingly earned the Reds three points with a stunning goal from distance.
Earlier, Rooney and Jesse Lingard had put United two goals to the good, but Newcastle hit back with goals from Georginio Wijnaldum and Aleksandr Mitrovic to set up a dramatic finale.
It was certainly a frustrating night for United, as everything seemed to click up front. Rooney, Lingard, Anthony Martial and Ander Herrera all linked up well, but it all seemed to fall apart defensively.
The draw drops the Reds to sixth – two points off fourth-placed Spurs – ahead of a massive game against Liverpool on Sunday.
Here’s what the United boss had to say to BT Sport in his post-match interview:
We threw it away. You have to finish the game much earlier. The referee gave a penalty and I think it was a duel – I have seen the video and you can see Mitrovic was pushing the head of Smalling. When you both do that you cannot decide which is worse, I think, but the referee did not lose our game. We lost it by ourselves.
When you want to avoid the header of Fellaini by putting your hands to the ball…it is not ball to hand, it is the hand to the ball and Fellaini cannot head it that way. I don’t think it is a discussion, but okay you never know in this world. You can always have a discussion.
We were unlucky, when you see the penalty for the second goal and when you see the third goal. When the ball is going where he [Paul Dummett] shot, then it is in the hands of De Gea. It clipped off Smalling and that took it past. It was unlucky. Before that, we were running behind and you have to push forward, you have to push the ball under pressure and we didn’t do that. Then you get these kinds of things.
They have to finish of course but it is always difficult. Rooney also had a very big chance in the first half. We could have scored six goals here, I think, there were big possibilities so when you then lose two points then that is very sad. Also, everybody knows it is our own fault. It was not the referee or the opponent. We did it ourselves.
