Wayne Rooney ended his Premiership goal drought to ease Manchester United to a 2-0 victory over Newcastle United at a snow-swept Old Trafford.

Having not scored in the league in 2006, Rooney struck twice in the space of four first half minutes to inflict the first defeat on Newcastle caretaker manager Glenn Roeder.

But the scoreline should have been even more emphatic only for the home side to miss a glut of chances during a hopelessly one-side encounter.

Sir Alex Ferguson stuck with the same team for the third game in a row, meaning Ruud van Nistelrooy was kicking his heels in frustration on the bench again, while Newcastle were also unchanged from the side which beat Bolton 3-1 last weekend.

The visitors started promisingly and offered no indication of what was to come as Nolberto Solano's shot was blocked by Wes Brown and Shola Ameobi's powerful attempt from the rebound was diverted away by Rio Ferdinand.

But an awful gaffe from Peter Ramage gifted The Red Devils the lead on eight minutes. His back-pass was seized upon by an alert Rooney and he nonchalantly chipped his shot over the exposed Shay Given.

The hosts then threatened to run up a cricket score, with van Nistelrooy's stand-in Louis Saha's touch deserting him when he was afforded a run on goal.

Saha was much more precise with his next touch on 13 minutes, flicking the ball to John O'Shea, who rolled it on to Rooney for the forward to steer his shot confidently past Given.

Newcastle seemed close to buckling under the pressure, with Saha volleying wide and Rooney driving over, and the visitors must have been thankful the Frenchman was in the side ahead of The Premiership's top scorer van Nistelrooy.

The Red Devils should have been 3-0 up by the 18th minute as Park Ji-sung sent Saha clear, but he woefully dragged his shot wide of the target.

Saha then failed to get a clean contact to Mikael Silvestre's cross at the near post while Cristiano Ronaldo's stinging free kick was punched into the air by Given.

Gary Neville was enjoying the vast expanses of Old Trafford to run into, pulling one cross back for Park, but the South Korean's finish lacked the composed nature of the build-up.

The Magpies proved they still had a faint heartbeat before half time when Scott Parker foraged forwards, only for his attempted lob to lack the height and precision to trouble Edwin van der Sar.

But before half time, Rooney was in the thick of things again as his drive poleaxed Parker and, from the resulting corner, Neville took a standing count after being caught square on the jaw by another piledriver from his team-mate.

Ramage's afternoon almost got even worse two minutes into the second half when the full back shinned Ronaldo's low cross over his own bar.

Rooney was at the hub of all The Red Devils' best work and his pull back for Ronaldo resulted in Given having to produce a fine save at full stretch.

While Newcastle remained embarrassingly inept in defence, the half time introduction of Lee Bowyer injected a spark into the attack and the midfielder's crisp drive had van der Sar sprawling across his goal.

The pendulum quickly swung back the other way as another Rooney lay-off was lashed wide by Ronaldo before the England international fluffed the chance of a hat-trick.

Jean-Alain Boumsong's misguided header sent Rooney clear, he rounded Given with consummate ease, but then struck the post with his shot when the goal was gaping.

Rooney then sliced wide from a good position and fizzed a shot off target before Ferguson brought on van Nistelrooy for the closing 15 minutes.

Inside the last 10 minutes and United's profligacy showed no sign of abating. Given pushed away a Park curler from 25 yards and, from the resulting corner, Saha headed over from close range after ghosting in to meet Neville's cross.

Even the normally deadly van Nistelrooy was afflicted by the curse as, after nicking the ball off Boumsong, the Dutch ace side-footed wide when one-on-one with Given.

In the final minutes, Rooney's shot deflected just wide off Celestine Babayaro and even substitute Patrice Evra fancied his chances, shooting at Given from distance

---

Man Utd: Van der Sar, Neville, Ferdinand, Brown, Silvestre (Evra 45), Ronaldo (van Nistelrooy 75), O'Shea, Giggs, Park, Rooney, Saha.

Subs Not Used: Howard, Vidic, Rossi.

Goals: Rooney 8, 12.

Newcastle: Given, Ramage, Boumsong, Elliott, Babayaro, Solano (Dyer 65), Parker, Emre, N'Zogbia (Luque 81), Ameobi (Bowyer 45), Shearer.
Subs Not Used: Harper, Clark.

Booked: Ramage.

Att: 67,858

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).

skysports.com