Manchester Utd Hammer Magpies

Alex Ferguson's Manchester United hammered King Kev's Newcastle United 5-1. Alex Ferguson had stated that he was looking forward to facing his old rival and his team's performance certainly showed it.

Right from the off, it was clear what Sir Alex's tactics were, win win win. The reds pushed the magpies back and Nani's blistering pace and clever trickery out did Habib Beye and a good cross saw rooney nearly score.

Newcastle then had a good chance as Damien Duff played some good football down the left and eventually got a good ball into the box, but there was no one there to head the ball into the back of the net.

Newcastle's defence was a shambles throughout the match and paid early on for not taking their chance. Ronaldo easily turned the bewildered Beye and to then flight a brilliant ball to the unmarked Rooney who simply had to tap the ball into the back of the net. Where was the Magpies defence??

Things went from bad to worse for Newcastle as Ronaldo continued to dominate the wings and eventually crossed to an unmarked to Tevez who headered wide from two yards and really should have scored.

Ronaldo made up for Tevez's antics and ran onto a brilliant through ball from Carrick to slot the ball past the flailing Harper. 2-0.

And within 5 minutes, just before half time, Ronaldo struck again. Tevez launched a ball forward and the ball eventually came to Fletcher who played hit through to Ronaldo. From then it was all Ronaldo, he nutmegged Taylor, making him look like nothing more than a part time footballer and then rounded Harper to slot the ball into the gaping net.

In the second half Newcastle looked slightly better and Milner nearly score cutting inside but his shot was blocked.

Eventually the break through came for Newcastle on the 79th minute as Faye headed from the corner. But as the Newcastle fans were still celebrating Man U quickly reacted scoring within a minute as Rooney finished cooly to beat the on coming Harper.

Saha came on for Tevez and nearly made an istant impact hitting the post and in the last minute he too got himself on the score sheet making it 5-1.

Newcastle: Given (Harper 46), Beye, Taylor, Faye, N'Zogbia, Milner (Geremi 84), Butt, Barton (Carroll 61), Duff, Smith, Owen.

Subs Not Used: Cacapa, Ameobi.

Booked: N'Zogbia, Faye, Owen, Butt.

Goals: Faye 79.

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Brown, Vidic (Scholes 74), Ferdinand, Evra (O'Shea 46), Ronaldo (Saha 67), Carrick, Fletcher, Nani, Rooney, Tevez.

Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Anderson.

Goals: Rooney 25, Ronaldo 45, 56, Rooney 80, Saha 90.