AFTER showing just how to beat Manchester United, Danny Simpson warned against writing off the champions successfully defending their Premier League title.

Newcastle United condemned the Red Devils to back-to-back defeats on Wednesday. With an FA Cup trip to Manchester City – now three points clear at the top of the Premier League – to negotiate, there is every chance of an unusual hat-trick.

That, though, is a side issue for the Magpies, whose push to qualify for Europe for the first time in five years was given fresh impetus by an impressive 3-0 win.

Despite the signs of fragility laid bare by Newcastle’s direct approach, former Red Devils player and fan Simpson was reluctant to discount their title chances.

“With the manager they’ve got and the team they’ve got, they’ve won so many trophies,” he noted.

“They’ve had setbacks and I’m sure they’ve lost two on the bounce before, but they’ll be even more up for it going to City at the weekend looking to put a marker down on them.

“He’s been in that situation before, Sir Alex (Ferguson, the manager), and I’m sure he’ll be fine.

“If you write Man United off you’re asking for trouble, aren’t you? You can’t write them off, they are a top-class team. City are doing really well but you can’t write them off and it’ll probably go right down to the wire.”

Both Uniteds went into the game having ended 2011 with defeat. That it was Newcastle who began 2012 with a victory which moved them to within a point of sixth-placed Liverpool was, says Simpson, down to the way they started the game.

“They’d got beaten in their last game and we knew they’d come out on Wednesday firing,” he said.

“We knew they’d be champing at the bit to get back to winning ways. It doesn’t happen very often that they lose two games on the bounce.

“We were all disappointed after the Liverpool match and the manager had a gameplan on Wednesday. He wanted us to start well from the off and get the fans on our side. That’s what we did.”