MATCH QUOTES

Last updated : 02 October 2006 By Ed

Ole:

"It's great to score again in the league

"But I don't think of it as three-and-a-half years, I just try to seize the moment.

"I was lucky enough to get a couple of scraps. The second one, I was just trying to get out of the way

"When they hit you like that you just have to take them

"In my first start this season, against Watford, that was probably my worst performance so far. I said to my friends it's like the roll of a dice, but hopefully it won't be one to six too many times.

"It's pleasing to get 90 minutes, it's good to get that out of the way so you don't have to answer questions about it! It's great being out there."


Ferguson:

"The great thing about Ole is that he's always in the right position.

"He must have fantastic belief in himself. When he was out for two years, I'll admit we had doubts [as to whether he would return] but he had no doubt.

"He always had confidence he'd be back - great courage and belief that he'd come back. For a 31-year-old not to play for almost two years, that's tough. But, since he started pre-season training this summer, he's shown such application and not missed a session, and he's got better. We saw glimpses of his true self today, and it's great for the fans to see him back because he's idolised here. Almost every week, he's got better.

"Today was our best performance of the season, simply in terms of the intensity of our display," added Ferguson. "We never stopped passing the ball. I thought we made it easy for Arsenal when they came here last month [and Arsenal won 1-0], but today we were on song.

"We got to the ball quicker, played with a lot of possession, and put in some great penetrative football with pace and width. We had to take our time, search out the openings, and we did that."

On Ronaldo:

"Marvellous, marvellous it was.

"He's been like that since the start of the season. Nothing fazes him, he's got great courage. There seems to have been a big change in him. It's difficult to say whether what happened in the summer was a defining moment, but I always said I could only see greatness ahead for him. Things still have to be in place. He's got to keep working hard and improve his understanding of the game."


Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder:

"Everyone is finding it difficult to cope with Ronaldo.

"It's not an attractive sight if you're a right-back, seeing Ronaldo running at you. He's in scintillating form and, no matter what game United are involved in, he's very much their focal point, along with Rooney. United have two of the finest talents in the world."

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"We got within four minutes of the break at 0-0 and the plan would have been working perfectly had we held out until then, but goals change games.

"I still believe that what we attempted to do was the correct thing. Arsenal came here and did the exact same thing and it worked, but the second goal completely killed us off."