After the game Chris Hughton commented:

"It's vital that we put on that type of performance right through to the end of the season.

"I was delighted with the performance. In the form that Manchester United are in, to be able in a lot of periods of the game to take the game to them, take the lead and go very close to getting a second speaks volumes for this group of players.

"We need to take that type of form and that type of quality into our next games to give us a good chance it what will be a very hard end of season.

"I'm sure most people will have felt that once they got back on level terms it was only a matter of time before they got the second, and arguably a third.

"But we got ourselves straight back into the game and caused them a lot of problems, and unfortunately gave away a poor goal."

On the thirteenth anniversary of the night that we lost our grip on the title here against the Red Devils, the current crop of Magpies produced one of their most convincing displays of the season against the defending Champions-elect.

Unfortunately the home side also suffered a defensive aberration that left them empty-handed and a little deeper in the relegation mire by the final whistle.

Back in 1996, Eric Cantona's goal had reduced the gap between Kevin Keegan's league leaders and Alex Ferguson's second-placed side to just three points, with ten games to play. By contrast the two Uniteds went into this game separated by 14 places and 34 points.

But it wasn't just the disparity between the two sides and their battles at opposite ends of the tables that stood out - the placidness of the 51,000+ crowd in 2009 was in stark contrast to the sheer bloody racket that 15,000 fewer punters made here back in those days - when we felt United.

That's not to say that the noise levels weren't raised by a bright Newcastle start to this contest, which saw Peter Lovenkrands net the second goal of his Toon career. That advantage was to last less than ten minutes, but in the time they were ahead, Newcastle did their utmost to build on it.

Another goal didn't come however, as another breakaway from our Danish/Nigerian duo saw the latter fizz a shot just past the post, before Vidic was yellow-carded after felling a goal-bound Martins on the edge of the box.

The visitors responded with an equaliser, but that failed to deter Newcastle from taking the fight to the opposition. Ryan Taylor's cross was deflected off the knee of Vidic and away to safety with Van der Sar a helpless onlooker, before Martins had another effort on target that was deflected wide.

Chris Hughton had drafted in Alan Smith and Geremi to fill our midfield vacancies and both anchored themselves to the centre circle, while Ameobi was ousted to the bench. Viduka was nowhere to be seen, allegedly injured again.

Nine minutes after the restart though we were behind - as most expected, but not perhaps by as great a margin as many had feared. 

The manner of that goal though had a sobering effect in dampening the atmosphere off the field, which in truth hadn't reached great heights. While our brethren up in Level Seven tell us that it sounded loud up there, their efforts don't get trapped in the stadium and disappear into the skies. 

As it had been against Everton, it took 85 minutes before the first outbreak of mass support round the ground was audible. The Level Seven chanters unfortunately seem to have drained the life out of other parts of the ground and don't inspire others to join in "down below".

The closing stages saw a partial Toon revival but no clear opportunities arising for an equaliser. Oba
was lacking in support but did test the 'keeper with one late effort, while Carroll & LuaLua came off the bench but didn't get an opportunity to emulate David Edgar's golden moment of 2007.

Lovenkrands was still out there though, noticeably following in that Oba effort looking for scraps - nice to see someone at last in our colours doing this and getting a result from it, both of his Newcastle goals so far coming into the "poacher" category. 

Of course his goal tonight came courtesy of a rare shot on target from Gutierrez and the South American Wayne Fereday had perhaps his best game since returning from injury, partially reprising the performance he delivered at Old Trafford that hinted at something that he's yet to deliver.

He took the man of the match award from the sponsors (although we again would have given it to Jose Enrique, whose revival has coincided with the absence of JFK. Funny that.) 
  
So, the winners duly made it eleven successive league victories, while the losers have now won just once in their last ten Premiership outings, making it just six victories in our 28 games to date.

Beaten yes, but certainly not outclassed and causing Alex Ferguson's side some genuine concerns, as we had when taking a point in our opening day meeting. If nothing else though we've improved our record against them this season, with an aggregate 2-3 and one point, compared to 1-11 and no points last time. That's cold comfort though, when looking at the league table and our fixture list.

Had we put in some similar displays against less illustrious opposition in the intervening six months though, then maybe we wouldn't be in our current plight - in effect we've wasted two good displays by producing it against these opponents. Would that we took Hull on like this in ten days... 

As we went down fighting though, our task was made more difficult as both Hull and Stoke won, while the smoggy revival was ended by fellow strugglers Spurs and Blackburn got a point.

We now face another ten day break before returning to action in the first of the ten games that will decide the fate of this club for better or worse - whether better isn't just another top-flight season like this being a moot point...

The phrase "ten cup finals" will no doubt be trotted out by some talking head before then, but that's hardly encouraging - given our record in finals....we'll settle for 'ten chances to extricate ourselves from the mess we've found ourselves in'.

Biffa