Eddie Howe hit back at Manchester United as Newcastle's rivalry with Old Trafford was cranked up.
Erik ten Hag took a dig at Newcastle's game-management tactics before the Carabao Cup final labelling the Geordies "annoying." And that jibe lay behind a super-motivated Newcastle performance, as Joe Willock and Callum Wilson claimed a deserved win.
Even the Newcastle club Twitter account got in on the needling, which included fractious touchline exchanges between both sets of staff including Howe and Ten Hag. NUFC tweeted: "No time-wasting required."
And Howe responded: "I don't get where this time-wasting nonsense has come from. We want the ball in play, and back in quickly. I always stand up for my team and what I believe is right."
Geordie defender Dan Burn waded in saying Newcastle "owed them one" because they'd "always disliked" the Old Trafford giants. It was revenge for their Carabao Cup final defeat to Ten Hag's side and Burn said: "That's really special. For a long time we've always disliked Man Utd as Newcastle fans. We owed them one. It was good to get a win today.
"Desperate [to beat them]. Over the seasons we've always wanted to beat Man Utd. Great performance from the lads. Delighted to get the win and a clean sheet."
Howe added: "We deserved the win and it was a really good performance. We prepared well. We had to be patient after creating chances we didn't take. We showed real belief. Most aspects of the team were strong. The first goal was a great goal. The physical outputs were huge."
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Ten Hag, on the other hand, slammed his side. "I think it was deserving for Newcastle," the United boss admitted to BBC Sport. They were more determined and had more passion and desire to score a goal. Also, to defend their box, which they did very well. We had the spaces and the opportunities but we did not use them.
"David [de Gea] made one great save. They had many shots from the edge and we put in blocks there. But we have to stop them before they come in to the final third. We didn't do that well. The blocks were good but better is to stop it at source."
Left-back Luke Shaw bemoaned: "Not good enough... I don't think Newcastle won on quality today, they won on desire, passion, hunger, attitude. They had a higher motivation than we did. That can't be possible. I feel I say the same every time we lose. They wanted it more. At Man Utd that shouldn’t be possible."
