Harry Maguire described some of the criticism Manchester United have received this season as "crazy".
The captain scored in the 4-1 win at Newcastle, a result that went some way to banishing the demons from the 6-1 loss to Tottenham two weeks ago, and insisted after there was still more to do to correct a disappointing start to the season.
United needed a result at St James' Park and after Maguire had equalised they struck three times in the final 10 minutes through Bruno Fernandes, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Marcus Rashford to claim all three points.
Having been beaten by Spurs and Crystal Palace at Old Trafford this season Maguire knew United needed a response, even if the scale of the 'crisis' had been overblown.
“We're going towards [answering our critics], but I wouldn't say we’d answered them fully. It’s crazy because we’re three games into the season and it seems like a big crisis," he told Sky Sports.
“This is our fourth game, we’ve won two and lost two, we’ve put in two terrible performances, we know we can do a lot better, this club doesn’t deserve performances like we’ve had at Old Trafford this season.
“We’ve gone to start answering the critics but there’s a long way to go, it’s a long season and we have to improve."
Maguire said the players had held an honest debrief after their disappointing results at home and they knew how important getting back to winning ways as quickly as possible was.
“When you play for this club and you get beat at home we ask questions," he said. "We work hard in training. It’s a great group, we knew we had to bounce back, although we’re three games into the season we came here and we knew we had to get points on the board. I felt it would have been harsh if we’d only come away with a point."
United claimed all three points in the end despite a difficult start, with Luke Shaw's own goal handing Newcastle the lead inside two minutes.
But Maguire praised the character to respond to that setback, especially given the pressure they were under after the heavy defeat to Tottenham.
"It showed great character, we’re under pressure, we’ve had a lot of criticism and to concede a goal like we did in the first minute is really tough to take, but it was great character shown and we thoroughly deserved the win," he said.
