Sir Alex Ferguson was extremely happy with his side's efforts after a stellar first half display helped Manchester United to a 3-0 victory over Newcastle in Sunday's English Premier League game.
Jonny Evans, Patrice Evra and Tom Celeverley scored for United at St James' Park, as the Red Devils closed the gap on Chelsea at the top of the table to four points.
"It was a great result to come here and win 3-0 against a very powerful and aggressive Newcastle team," Ferguson told Sky Sports. "You have to really perform and make sure you keep control of the game and I think we did that for most of the time.
"We were terrific in the second half against Tottenham, it was an absolutely brilliant performance but the first half spoiled the whole day. Whereas today we were really on top of our game in terms of concentration, determination and all of the things you want to see in a team that is going to win.
"I think concentration is important at this level and we concentrated on the way we played in the first 20 minutes. It's strange that we played so much good football and made good openings, but we scored from two setpieces which is unusual for us.
"Patrice Evra has only scored four goals and I think Jonny Evans has only got two goals. But you take it because winning these games is important and all in all, I thought the football was really good and the concentration was terrific and the determination was there.
Ferguson admitted United were under pressure to get all three points, after all their title rivals had won their weekend matches.
"I think there was pressure because you don't want to fall too far behind," the United manager added. "If we hadn't won today we would have been seven points behind Chelsea.
"We are in the frame and we are still there. Obviously, every game is important now because we want to stay up there and hopefully we can do that."
There was room for a little bit of controversy in the game, however, when Cisse seemed to have headed the ball over the line, before David De Gea intervened, but the goal was not given. And Ferguson said it was the right decision, as there was no conclusive evidence the entire ball had crossed the goal-line.
"I had a look at it and the replay is inconclusive," Ferguson added. "The whole ball was not over the line but I would be disappointed if we didn't get the goal ourselves if we were in that situation.
"Our goalkeeper has done fantastically to get to it, but if the rule is that the whole ball has to be over the line then it is not a goal. I would have been disappointed though because I thought enough of the ball was over."
The United manager was also happy to see the diamond formation pay dividends for the third time in a row, with his side catching Newcastle cold early in the first half. Wayne Rooney was the top man in the diamond with Michael Carrick at the base, and Cleverley and Shinji Kagawa on either sides.
"I wanted to try the diamond again after some success against Cluj, which is not an easy place to go to, and against Newcastle in the Capital One Cup," Ferguson told the club's official channel. "It worked very well for us. Obviously there were moments in the second half when we felt we had to change.
"The diamond closes off the midfield. The only problem is when the ball goes out wide, how far your midfield gets separated. If you try to keep it tight in the centre of the field, then the opposition have to go wide.
"Okay, we took a gamble today because Newcastle are so big up front and they're good crossers of the ball. But the football we played from the central midfield positions through Cleverley, Kagawa, Rooney and Carrick was terrific.
"We played so well on Tuesday against a decent team. People look at the name Cluj and say they expect United to win, but they are a decent side. And because we played so well on Tuesday, I thought we should find out how far we can go with that diamond system. "
