After drawing an opening blank, set against a background rumble of discontent and home fans' chants of "Dalglish", Mars might seem an inviting haven for the Ewood manager. Substitutes not used: Peacock, Barton, Clark, Srnicek (gk).Referee: M Reed (Birmingham).Bookings: Everton Unsworth, Hinchcliffe. Newcastle United Beresford, Albert.Man of the match: Ferguson Attendance: 40,117.. United dominated the second period and rarely looked back.Keegan shows no sign of similar pragmatism - "My Way" remains his text. However, United began their recovery during that match.With his team 3-0 down at half-time, Alex Ferguson dumped an experimental three-man defence and reverted to type. Instead, Keegan was forced to recall that Manchester United lost their opening game last year, 3-1 to Aston Villa.

As Ferdinand faded, Shearer became the greater threat and, but for the referee Mike Reed and Neville Southall, might have scored.Reed judged Shearer to have illegally levered himself above Andy Hinchcliffe when he headed in after 23 minutes, while Southall brilliantly denied a 43rd-minute header. The goalkeeper, 38 next month, was celebrating his 700th Everton appearance and it was not hard to see why Nigel Martyn had opted for Leeds rather than attempt to displace a legend.Keegan said he felt Shearer's goal was good and, had it counted, it may have deflated Everton enough to send Newcastle away. In the air he was almost unbeatable, but he is also a better player on the ground than he is given credit for. With "substantial money" available, according to one director, he may soon have a partner, but on Saturday he played alone, well supported by breaking midfielders."He is going to give a lot of central defenders a lot of problems," said Keegan, who had no such reward from his pounds 21m pair of strikers.

Les Ferdinand started brightly, buoyed by nine goals in his previous seven games against Everton, but Shearer touched the ball just three times in the opening 20 minutes. In the ensuing scramble, Watson and Shaka Hislop brought the Scot down. David Unsworth converted the penalty.Five minutes before half-time Graham Stuart swung a deep cross in from the right, Ferguson beat Albert in the air, and Speed, untracked by any Newcastle player, was able to roll his nod-down into the net.Although the cheapest, at pounds 4m, of the three centre-forwards on view, Ferguson was comfortably the most impressive. At times on Saturday, Newcastle's defence was so ragged it looked as if they had never trained together. Philippe Albert would raise his arm for offside on one flank only to find two defenders languishing behind him."We are better than that," Keegan said, which is also what he had said after losing the Charity Shield. Then Newcastle had conceded four goals and, if Everton's finishing had been the equal of Manchester United's they would have conceded four on Saturday.