Manchester United defeat Newcastle (2-1)

Last night Manchester United defeated a strong Newcastle side at Old Trafford to advance to the next round of the Capital One Cup. It was a hard fought contest that saw the reds score two goals to better the magpies one in a very entertaining match… The big news before kick-off was that Darren Fletcher was making his full return after nearly a year out recovering from a serious bowel condition. He took his place in a starting eleven which, if you are a Man Utd fan watching them for the first time in a while you may struggle to recognize. Here’s how the teams lined up;


Man Utd: De Gea, Vermiji, Wootton, Keane, Buttner, Cleverley, Fletcher, Anderson, Rooney, Welbeck, Hernandez.

Subs: Johnstone, Evans, Powell, Lingard, Brady, King, Tunnicliffe.

Newcastle: Elliot, Perch, Williamson, Coloccini, Tavernier, Obertan, Tiote, Gosling, Marveaux, Vuckic, Shola Ameobi.

Subs: Harper, Anita, Cisse, Amalfitano, Bigirimana, Sammy Ameobi, Ferguson.



The first half was actually a little slow- Newcastle had some good chances and United struggled to respond, the likes of Rooney and Hernandez were barley seen on the ball and the fresh defense found it difficult without veterans Vidic and Ferdinand. Newcastle seemed to be missing something as well, the “talisman” striker Papiss Cisse who was sitting on the Bench and Demba Ba who was left out all together.

Later in the half, United starting getting into their stride, although the strikers still seemed absent, Tom Cleverly missed chance after chance including a howler on 35 minutes which was harder to miss than score! Anderson in particular looked dangerous with multiple impressive shots to test Rob Elliot before finally beating him with a stunning strike to break the deadlock on the stroke of Half Time, his first goal in almost a year.

The second half started much like the first, with Newcastle posing a threat to De Gea’s net although not as strong as the first half an equalizer was looking a dead cert with Vukic and Ameobi amongst the contenders. United seemed confident of a second goal and were pushing to create it before Tom Cleverly finally broke and hit a curving shot from the edge of the area to net his first goal in a United shirt and make a two goal deficit between his team and the visitors, Newcastle’s manager Alan Pardew quickly made a clever substitution bringing off Vukic replacing him with Cisse in the 61st minute… a sense of fear was felt throughout every Manchester United fan watching the match and for good reason- Cisse has a tendency to score… a lot… his wonder strike against Chelsea towards the end of last season was deemed the best of the campaign and it didn’t take him long to showcase his talents. Within a minute of coming on he nodded the ball past the man between the sticks for United bringing the score to 2-1 and a genuine atmosphere rang out from the away end anticipating that they weren’t quite out of it yet.

Hernandez struck the bar later on which sent Newcastle hearts into mouths before the magpies really started to push sensing they could steal an equalizer from the hands of Sir Alex and every red devil in the world. Attempt after attempt came and went, the best of which was another Cisse effort in the 82nd minute a stunning overhead kick which ricochets the crossbar and is greeted by a collective gasp of air from the spectating Geordies.

Despite their best efforts the score remained the same and United went on to take a place in the fourth round… next up for the reds? A trip down south to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

United outplayed Newcastle but Welbeck (above) failed to shine