Manchester United's title bid took a small hiccup after Newcastle held them to a 2-2 draw at St. James Park denying them a nine-point lead over Chelsea on New Year's day. 

The balance of the match shifted throughout the 90 minutes, but ultimately the result went neither way and both the teams had to share the points. Manchester United started the match in an attacking mode, recalling both Scholes and Vidic with Neville returning from his ankle injury. Gabriel Heinze was on the bench with Sir Alex preferring for a more attacking mined Evra.

Newcastle injury problem continued to worsen with both Peter Ramage and Nicky Butt injured meaning a start for 19-year old Canadian defender David Edgar. Manchester United started the match on fourth gear when Saha missed the target after moving into a great position. Saha then had a second chance to score but was denied by a great save from Shay Given.

He then saw his header blocked on the line from a Giggs' corner and completed a miserable out liming off the field with a groin injury. Newcastle then took a shock lead completely against the run of play when James Milner latched onto a pass from Dyer and smashed the ball into the net.

Just when it looked as if Manchester United will go into the second half behind, Scholes burst onto the scene with a brilliant goal in the 40th minute beating two Newcastle defenders. Scholes then added his second immediately after the start of the second half latching on to a square ball and driving through the legs of Steven Taylor.

Just when it looked like United had won the game, Edgar scored his first goal for the club shooting from the left hand side and the ball rolled into the net after taking a deflection from Paul Scholes. Sir Alex praised the home side for the determination shown and said that there is still a lot of time left before the end of the season and both his team and Chelsea, who will face Aston Villa on Tuesday, are bound to drop points.