Boss Laments Missing Spark

David Moyes was frustrated by his Manchester United side’s lack of creativity against Newcastle on Saturday afternoon.

The Reds fell to a second successive 1-0 Barclays Premier League defeat at Old Trafford after struggling to create many goalscoring opportunities against the Magpies.

“I’m disappointed with the result,” Moyes said. “There were bits of the game where I thought we needed a bit of luck and things to go for us but it didn’t happen.

“We are missing a little bit of creativity at the right times. When we’ve had chances to make good passes we’ve not quite made them.

“We’ve lost the past two games 1-0, probably slightly against the run of play, but we have to expect that and create more chances – to play better. That’s the way to do it.”

A key moment in the game came 10 minutes into the second half, when Patrice Evra’s header hit the post and then deflected off Vurnon Anita’s arm on the goalline to safety.

“The boy’s hand stops the ball from going into the net,” Moyes said. “On any other day that would be given as a penalty kick. Whether the referee could see it [I don’t know].

“Undoubtedly we need the small bits of luck to go with us but we don’t want to rely on luck or referee decisions. But when you’re not firing on all cylinders you need little bits of good fortune.”

Moyes insisted Saturday’s defeat could not be attributed to a lack of effort, either by him or his team.

With Wayne Rooney suspended, Javier Hernandez started up front alongside the returning Robin van Persie, while Adnan Januzaj was given a chance on the wing and Wilfried Zaha was introduced in the second half.

“We tried with Robin and Chicha because we didn’t have Wayne available,” Moyes added. “We tried different wide players to create different opportunities if that was possible.

“So it’s not as if there is somebody there that we’re not giving an opportunity to. We’re trying to give them all opportunities to show what they can do.

“I thought every one of them did everything they could to try to get the result. Could we play better? Of course we could. But I couldn’t fault the players and what they tried to do.”