Tom Cleverley fired home a long-range strike, which looked suspiciously like an over hit cross, to add the gloss to a 3-0 victory over Newcastle United, and the Manchester United midfielder insisted he meant to score.

Jonny Evans and Patrice Evra gave United an early 2-0 lead, before Cleverley scored his first-ever English Premier League goal in a United shirt.

Seeing a run from one of the United strikers, Cleverley seemed to want to loop in a far post cross, but got too much on it, and in the process catching the goalkeeper Steve Harper off his line. "Yeah, I meant to put it in that far corner," Cleverley told the club's official channel. "I looked to the far corner and, whether it's a good cross or obviously a good finish, luckily it's found the net.

"The ball's come back and I've seen the goalkeeper a little bit off his line so I've hit that area. Whether Welbz (Danny Welbeck) gets across and puts his head on it or the ball goes straight in, so I'd say it's a good finish."

Sir Alex Ferguson, though, having seen many a goal similar to that in his time, disagreed. "I think it was a cross but he says it was a shot," the United manager said with a smile.

Cleverley, who also scored his first ever senior United goal against Newcastle in the League Cup game a couple of weeks back, was happy with the way his team defended after going two goals up.

"We all knew it was going to be a tough game," he said. "Starting like we did was fantastic for us -- not just the goals but we were playing really well. I think it took them 20 minutes to cope with us and we were 2-0 up by then and in control.

"We hit them on the counter-attack times and I thought we really controlled the second half.

"Away from home, any clean sheet is massive. Despite all the balls Newcastle put into the box, the back four and keeper were fantastic and fully deserved the clean sheet.

"We know we've got goals in the team and we've got players who can assist goals from everywhere. Welbz and Wazza (Wayne Rooney) were two of our main goalscorers last season and they've not scored yet so, when everyone clicks, I'm sure we can go on a run."

Ferguson employed a diamond formation, with an attacking line-up, which consisted of the likes of Robin Van Persie, Rooney, Welbeck and Shinji Kagawa, that would have been the envy of any team.

"We played it (the new formation) against Newcastle in the Cup and Cluj, and have won all three games," Cleverley added. "It's a good system and something else we can use against teams. We've got plenty of plan Bs and plan Cs.

"My two goals have both come against Newcastle but, in general, I think I'm getting into goalscoring positions now. At the start of the season, it just wasn't going in. I had one cleared off the line at Everton and for England so, fortunately, I'm finding the back of the net now and hopefully I can go on a run.

"We said last time (there was an international break) when we managed to win at Southampton that it would've been horrible having no game for two weeks and having a defeat. With all our main competitors winning, we really had to get the three points and thankfully we did."