Newcastle 0 Man United 1

New­castle Uni­ted 0 Man­chester Uni­ted 1, St Ja­mes´ Park, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, Mar­ch 4, 2015. Louis van Gaal´s Man­chester Uni­ted edged out New­castle Uni­ted 1-0 at St Ja­mes´ Park thanks to a late win­ning goal from Eng­land wing­er Ash­ley Young in the 89th min­ute of the tie. The win over New­castle was Young´s 80th Pre­mier Lea­gue ap­pear­ance for the club since his ar­rival from As­ton Vil­la in June 2011.

Man­chester Uni­ted made the trip to the North East of Eng­land to face New­castle Uni­ted at St James´s Park on the 4th of Mar­ch 2015, look­ing to gain their fourth Pre­mier Lea­gue away vic­tory of the cam­paign. The Geordies were mis­sing mid­field play­ers Remy Ca­bella and Jack Col­back, as well as full back Mas­sa­d­io Haidara, for the en­counter, whi­le Uni­ted were with­out the ser­vices of Neth­er­lands in­ter­na­tion­al at­tack­er Robin van Per­sie. In the re­verse Pre­mier Lea­gue fix­ture of the 2014-15 sea­son, Man­chester Uni­ted had com­fort­ably beaten New­castle by a 3-1 mar­gin at ho­me on Box­ing Day wi­th a double from Way­ne Roo­ney and a single from Van Per­sie, and in the cor­res­pond­ing meet­ing the pre­vi­ous cam­paign, The Reds had trashed The Mag­pies by 4-0 at St Ja­mes´ Park cour­tesy of a brace from Ju­an Ma­ta and a goal apiece from Javi­er Her­nandez and Ad­nan Januza. Wi­th the stat­ist­ics firm­ly on their si­de, fourth po­si­tioned Man­chester Uni­ted were ex­pec­ted by most pun­dits ar­ound the coun­try to emerge vic­tori­us from the tussle away to New­castle Uni­ted who were sit­ting el­ev­enth in the Pre­mier Lea­gue ta­ble. There was some early dra­ma in the ga­me, tho­ugh, as the New­castle play­ers ap­pealed strongly for a pen­alty kick af­ter Man­chester Uni­ted stop­per Chris Small­ing had mis­timed his tack­le and bro­ught down for­mer Saint-Etienne, Toulouse, and Monaco front­man Em­manuel Riviere in­side the 18-yard area in the tenth min­ute of ac­tion, but mat­ch of­fi­cial An­thony Tay­lor awar­ded noth­ing at all. Man­chester Uni­ted had sev­er­al de­cent scor­ing op­por­tun­it­ies be­fore the sound of the ha­lf-time whistle, but were denied by agile ho­me net­mind­er Tim Krul on each oc­ca­sion, and the fir­st ha­lf ended in a goal­less stalemate.

Ap­par­ently, there was a spit­ting ex­change be­tween New­castle and Seneg­al in­ter­na­tion­al for­ward Papiss Cisse and Man­chester United´s North­ern Ire­land in­ter­na­tion­al Jon­ny Evans a few min­utes be­fore the in­ter­mis­sion re­fresh­ments at St Ja­mes´ Park, and the two play­ers were sus­pen­ded for sev­en and six ga­mes re­spect­ively by the Foot­ball As­so­ci­ation fol­low­ing the in­cid­ent. Af­ter the re­sump­tion of the play, Man­chester Uni­ted con­tin­ued to cre­ate scor­ing chances for them­selves, and Mar­cos Rojo, An­gel Di Mar­ia, and Way­ne Roo­ney all came clo­se to find­ing the back of the net. Wi­th the clock tick­ing to­wards the end of the tie, Uni­ted ev­entually ma­naged to pro­duce a late win­ning goal as op­por­tun­ist­ic flank for­ward Ash­ley Young took full ad­vant­age of a be­wildered and hes­it­ant New­castle de­fence to strike the ball ho­me in the 89th min­ute of the mid­week fix­ture, giv­ing Louis van Gaal´s multi mil­lion te­am a hard earned and much need­ed 1-0 away tri­umph. Des­pite the vic­tory ag­ainst New­castle Uni­ted, Man­chester Uni­ted re­mained in fourth po­s­i­tion in the Pre­mier Lea­gue ta­ble wi­th 53 points from 28 mat­ches played. Ro­man Abramovich´s Chel­sea were still in the lead wi­th 63 points, five points ahead of sec­ond po­si­tioned Man­chester City, and as much as nine points above Ar­senal in third place. New­castle Uni­ted Te­am: Tim Krul, Daryl Jan­maat, Mi­ke Wil­li­am­son, Fab­ri­cio Co­loccini, Ry­an Tay­lor, Me­hdi Abeid, Moussa Sis­soko, Sam­my Ameo­bi, Gab­riel Ober­tan, Papiss Cisse, Em­manuel Riviere. Sub­stitutes: Fred­die Wood­man, Lubo Satka, Vurnon An­ita, Jo­nas Gu­ti­er­rez, Yoan Gouf­fran, Ayoze Pe­rez, Ad­am Arm­strong. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Da­vid de Gea, An­tonio Va­lencia, Chris Small­ing, Mar­cos Rojo, Jon­athan Evans, An­gel Di Mar­ia, An­der Her­rera, Da­ley Bli­nd, Mar­ou­ane Fel­laini, Ash­ley Young, Way­ne Roo­ney. Sub­stitutes: An­ders Linde­gaard, Phil Jones, Ju­an Ma­ta, Ra­damel Fal­cao, Ad­nan Januzaj, Mi­chael Car­rick, Pad­dy McNair.

Ashley Young Quickfacts

Born and grow­ing up in Hert­ford­shire, Ash­ley Young kick-star­ted his pro­fes­sion­al play­ing ca­reer at Wat­ford be­fore he sig­ned wi­th As­ton Vil­la in Jan­uary 2007. He joi­ned Man­chester Uni­ted for an es­tim­ated trans­fer fee of ar­ound £20 mil­lion in June 2011 and made his Pre­mier Lea­gue de­but for the club in a 2-1 tri­umph over West Brom­wich Al­bion at The Haw­thorns on the open­ing week­end of the 2011-12 campaign.

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