in the aftermath of a remarkably freakish manchester united winner at st james' park on wednesday night, an unusually animated louis van gaal pinched ryan giggs hard on the cheek and stared hard in to his eyes as if to say: 'i told you so' the only problem was that giggs wasn't buying it giggs has been at united for two decades and didn't even crack a smile he knows that football like this will not take his football club where it needs to go not in the long run, anyway giggs has seen plenty of late winning goals for united over the years he has been part of teams that have won when they haven't deserved to, who have somehow grabbed something from games that seemingly had nothing to offer ashley young fires home the winner for manchester united to earn his side a valuable three points at newcastle  young peels away in celebration as united remain on course for a top four finish despite playing below their best  young runs over to celebrate in front of the manchester united fans after his late strike at st james' park  wayne rooney, michael carrick and danny blind are among the united players to celebrate with young  wayne rooney was involved in the build up as his pressure forced the newcastle defence to panic before krul gifted the chance to young  krul lies on his back in dejection after his error allowed young to slam home united's winner against newcastle  united manager louis van gaal reacts to young's winner by knocking his assistant ryan giggs on the cheek  but giggs shows absolutely no emotion after young's winner gave united a crucial victory in their champions league push  newcastle (4 4 2): krul 8; janmaat 65, williamson 65, coloccini 6, r taylor 55 (gutierrez 64, 65); obertan 6, abeid 6, sissoko 6, ameobi 55 (gouffran 81); riviere 55 (perez 59), cisse 5  subs not used: anita, armstrong, satka, woodman booked: gutierrez  manager: john carver  manchester united (4 1 4 1): de gea 6; valencia 6, evans 6, smalling 55, rojo 6 (carrick 89); blind 6; di maria 5 (januzaj 59), fellaini 6 (mata 82), herrera 6, young 5; rooney 6  subs not used: jones, falcao, lindegaard, mcnair goal: young 89  booked: rojo, valencia  manager: louis van gaal  referee: anthony taylor  attendance: 49, 801  angel di maria was replaced early in the second half by louis van gaal who sent adnan junzaj on his place but the argentina had one of his better games for manchester united and covered plenty of ground on the right wing click here for more brilliant stats and heat maps from old trafford his united, though, the one that he knows, used to bully teams late in games as his old manager sir alex ferguson has admitted, united teams of yore used to practice scoring late goals in training they won games like this by sheer force of will, belief and personality this united team, on the other hand, the one with van gaal's uncertain hand on the tiller, stumbles its way in to opportunities somehow it manages to win despite itself if it continues like this for another two months then it may yet find itself in the champions league places come the season's end at the moment, though, it is hard to see it this, in many ways, was the modern united at their worst facing a home team devoid of purpose, energy and intelligence, united really should have taken hold of this game, won it comfortably and used it as a platform ahead of tougher challenges to come instead, they saw newcastle miss two golden opportunities and wasted their own with inept work in front of goal the home team, meanwhile, were somehow denied a clear early penalty by a referee that we can only presume – generously – was unsighted and then there was the winning goal a gift a shambles three points handed to united on a black and white tray there was no late cavalry charge by united here they had settled for a point the game was drifting towards a conclusion that had seemed inevitable for so long but then wayne rooney's run in to the penalty area was halted by mehdi abeid, the subsequent back pass sold goalkeeper tim krul short and when the clearance – born of panic and terror – landed at the feet of ashley young, the goal waited – empty – just ten yards away marouane fellaini came close to scoring for manchester united but he was denied by a brilliant stop from tim krul  ashley young had a chance to convert the rebound but took too long and was also denied by newcastle's dutch goalkeeper  angel di maria was replaced early in the second half by adnan januzaj as united struggled to break down a stubborn newcastle side  wayne rooney has scored more premier league goals against newcastle than any other club, although he failed to add to his tally of 12 on wednesday night it was an astonishing moment this great stadium has witnessed plenty of drama over the years and no little pantomime it hasn't witnessed much like this, though in the home dugout, manager john carver stood aghast this was some way to lose a football match and it was hard not to feel some sympathy for him his team had been pretty lousy but they didn't deserve to lose his thoughts understandably were still with the early penalty shout, somehow denied him when chris smalling hacked down emmanuel riviere in the eleventh minute 'that would have set us up nicely,' he said had newcastle scored first then it’s questionable whether united would have had it in them to respond as it was, nothing much else happened in the first half, apart from what may have been an unpleasant exchange of saliva between jonny evans and papiss cisse rooney, playing as a lone centre forward, missed two chances around the half hour mark, clipping one wide when face to face with krul and then falling over when a slip by fabricio coloccini presented him with another sight of goal there was not a shot on target from either team, however, until marouane fellaini’s header required krul to parry in the 44th minute newcastle were poor enough to allow united the majority of the possession but van gaal’s team, not unusually, didn’t have the wit to do much with it emmanuel riviere ghosted in at the post but could not force the ball beyond united's goalkeeper dave de gea  de gea made himself wide in the united goal to deny newcastle the opener at st james' park  pappis cisse has words with jonny evans after the pair appeared to spit at each other during a heated exchange in the first half  cisse wipes his eye after he and evans were later shown to have spat at each other during an unsavoury incident  evans appears to spit on cisse (left) before the newcastle striker returns the favour (right) as tempers flared before half time  on the right, angel di maria was having a decent game, relatively speaking his night was ended on the hour, though, when van gaal replaced him with adnan januzaj it seemed an odd move and di maria looked less than chuffed at least by then the game was a little more alive riviere brought a save from david de gea after coloccini headed down a free kick while at the other end krul saved brilliantly from a fellaini half volley and a young follow up that perhaps took a little too long to arrive at last there was an atmosphere inside this great stadium and things improved further when jonas gutierrez entered as a substitute his first appearance since recovering from testicular cancer, it was soon marked by a booking but nobody really cared about it was good to see him soon newcastle could have had a goal a break from another substitute ayoze perez found him and cisse two on one with evans but the pass from one team mate to another was criminally over hit and, as such, the chance disappeared perhaps that summed up the night for both teams just not good enough in sport, though, mistakes often decide contests and so it was here krul won a game all on his own for van gaal with his penalty shoot out heroics against costa rica during last summer’s world cup here, he did it again in rather different circumstances jonas gutierrez made an emotional return for newcastle after recovering from testicular cancer  gutierrez is given the captain's armband by fabricio coloccini after coming on in the second half at st james' park  chris smalling battles with riviere for the ball in the first half of united's narrow win over newcastle  fellaini throws his arm into mike williamson's face in a clash during the first half 
ashley young tim krul's manchester united krul marouane fellaini newcastle emmanuel riviere david de gea papiss cisse jonny evans
ashley young was on hand to fire home with just minutes remaining after tim krul's poor pass out . manchester united had looked toothless in front of goal until then with krul denying marouane fellaini . newcastle also came close through emmanuel riviere but he was denied by david de gea . papiss cisse was involved in an unsavoury incident with jonny evans as both men spat at each other 