Solskjaer starts to dream of permanent promotion

Caretaker boss 'doesn't want to leave' as his United honeymoon continues

NEWCASTLE, England - Ole Gunnar Solskjaer joined Matt Busby in the Manchester United record books thanks to a 2-0 win at Newcastle on Wednesday and admitted he does not want to leave the club in the summer.

The United interim manager, in charge until the end of the season when he is scheduled to return to his Norwegian club Molde, has now won his first four games in charge.

In United's history, only the legendary and iconic Busby has matched that achievement and Solskjaer celebrated enthusiastically with the club's traveling supporters after goals from Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford secured the points.

"I don't want to (leave)," said Solskjaer when asked about his future beyond this season.

"It is such a great bunch of players, a fantastic atmosphere. But it is the next game, the next game and I am doing my job for as long as I am here."

United will now move on to much tougher challenges, starting with the Premier League visit to Tottenham a week on Sunday.

But, given the manner of Wednesday's victory, Solskjaer has the look of a manager at the top of his game after his decision to throw on Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez, two of the biggest under-achievers under former boss Jose Mourinho, after 63 minutes.

Instantly, Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka fumbled a 25-yard Rashford freekick and Lukaku, with his first touch of the game, tapped the rebound home from five yards.

The game hung in the balance until the 79th minute when Newcastle, pushing upfield for an equalizer, was caught on the counterattack.

Lukaku found Sanchez whose astute pass reached Rashford before the England forward showed great poise to curl past Dubravka for his third goal in four games.

Rashford on a roll

"It was a tough test," said Solskjaer of Rashford's performance.

"He gets kicked, and he gets tackled, he goes for headers, he wins, he challenges, he runs.

"He is going to be a top, top number nine, definitely but then we've got Rom (Lukaku), so sometimes he'll play on the right, sometimes on the left, sometimes through the middle. He'll get enough games.

"But I felt it was time to put Rom and Alexis on and, of course, it was a great shot by Marcus and Romelu does his job as a striker to be following in on the rebound. If you do that, you'll get five or six goals every season for free, really."

United's victory could have been even more emphatic after Paul Pogba raced clear in injury time and rounded the keeper only to roll the ball into the side-netting.

But that hardly mattered on an evening when Solskjaer pulled to within one victory of the record five that Busby won in his first season in charge of the club in 1946-47.

"That will be in the books but it's nothing I'm thinking of," said Solskjaer of his fourth win - a feat only he and Busby have achieved.

"I'm just thinking about the next game, because if you win four you can win another four with this club, that's the challenge, that's the standard we're used to.

"The gaffer (Alex Ferguson) used to challenge us on them and when we've won four you can go onto the next four and think about them."

The only slight concern for Solskjaer was an injury suffered by Pogba who was caught by an nasty late foul by Newcastle substitute Jonjo Shelvey which went unpunished by referee Andre Marriner.

There were also some anxious first half moments for Solskjaer thanks to shaky defending although United eventually emerged with just its third clean sheet of the season and the first under its interim boss.

Agence France - presse