Young snatches victory for United after Tim Krul gaffe

LONDON: On the long and grinding road back to Europe, Ashley Young’s 89th-minute winner papered over the cracks of another laboured Manchester United display.

And the only spitting image was, sadly, not a throwback to the satirical buffoonery of TV’s latex puppets but Jonny Evans and Papiss Cisse appearing to exchange great expectorations.

Young’s opportunism, from Tim Krul’s ghastly scuffed clearance, was tough on the Newcastle keeper.

Krul had thwarted United with an impeccable display – one double save from Marouane Fellaini and Young was simply world-class – until he shanked Mehdi Abeid’s backpass straight to the former England winger.

United boss Louis van Gaal celebrated with his players on the pitch as if he was already getting his passport stamped at Calais for his first Champions League excursion from Old Trafford.

But in truth, United’s win – which keeps them two points ahead of fifth-placed Liverpool – was neither pretty nor especially proficient.

In fact, for long periods a fixture which was once a title decider in the 1990s was buttock-clenchingly grim.

Even after Young had burgled the winner, David De Gea was required to make a fabulous, sprawling save to deny Papiss Cisse an instant equaliser.

If, as Van Gaal claimed, the race for fourth place is a rat race, this was a 90-minute advert for pest control.

And if Hull winger George Boyd’s retrospective three-match ban for spitting at England goalkeeper Joe Hart last season is any guide, LVG may be about to lose Evans for part of a critical month in United’s season.

Van Gaal expressed satisfaction that United were heading for Monday’s FA Cup quarter-final showdown with Arsenal in good heart and, admittedly, United probably deserved to win.

But £59.7 million record signing Angel Di Maria struggled again, skipper Wayne Rooney wasted a simple first-half chance with a breathtakingly casual finish and Radamel Falcao remained £285,000-a-week’s worth of window dressing on the bench.

Geordies boss John Carver trotted out the language of clutching straws, claiming his side were “robbed” and and he was “raging inside” that United’s burgled winner came from a throw-in wrongly awarded to the visitors.

He had a legitimate cause for grievance when Chris Smalling wiped out Emmanuel Riviere in the box with impunity, Match of the Day host Gary Lineker tweeting: “If that wasn’t a penalty at St James’ then my ears ain’t big.”

But after Steven Taylor, Jack Colback and Krul were pictured at the Brits after-show party last week, that’s as close as Newcastle will be getting to any awards this season..

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