STEVE McCLAREN is hoping Newcastle United’s resilient display at Manchester United will prove a springboard for the remainder of the campaign.

The Magpies picked up their second point of the season as a spirited rearguard action enabled them to prevent Manchester United from scoring for the first time this term at Old Trafford.

With Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor outstanding at the heart of the back four, and Tim Krul performing impressively between the sticks, Newcastle’s performance was in marked contrast to their error-strewn display at Swansea seven days earlier.

McClaren had pledged to tighten things up after watching his side slump to a 2-0 defeat at the Liberty Stadium, and having only taken over at St James’ Park at the start of the summer, the Magpies head coach is hoping yesterday’s efforts have set a benchmark for the rest of the season.

“I want it to do a lot,” said McClaren. “It’s difficult when you’re new and you come into a club, and we’ve also made a lot of signings and they need to bed in.

“Coloccini and (Chancel) Mbemba missed pre-season, so they’re only going to get fitter and better. It’s difficult to turn it around, so you need performances and results.

“We’ll try to hammer this performance into them, and I hope they’ll take confidence from that and go on because I think this team can get better.”

While Manchester United came close to scoring on four or five occasions in the opening 20 minutes, Louis van Gaal’s side rapidly ran out of ideas in the face of some disciplined defensive work from their opponents.

Newcastle were on the back foot for the majority of the afternoon, although Aleksandar Mitrovic hit the crossbar with an excellent header in the first half and Florian Thauvin almost capped his debut appearance with a goal as he narrowly failed to connect with a cross from Papiss Cisse in the closing stages.

“I was delighted with both the performance and the result,” said McClaren. “Surviving the first 20 minutes was the key to the game, and getting in at half-time at 0-0 always gave us a chance.

“We always know that after Europe, the Saturday game can be difficult. You have to score in the first 20 minutes and they went all out to do that. We looked determined to give them the goal, but we survived that and grew into the game.

“We grew so much that in the end, with a bit more belief, we could have nicked it and won the game. The attitude, organisation and discipline – all the things you need to get a result away from home, especially here – we had. Once you get that, you also need a bit of luck, and we had that too.”

McClaren reserved special praise for Coloccini, who turned down the opportunity to rejoin his former manager Alan Pardew at Crystal Palace in order to sign a new deal with the Magpies.

“I think you could see how committed he (Coloccini) is,” he said. “He was the leader out there, with (Steven) Taylor also excellent and Tim Krul behind.

“From one to 11, and with the subs that came on, you have to do a good job here. You have to do your jobs, and concentration is the key thing because I’ve been there and in the last ten minutes, teams usually lose concentration and you wear the opponent down. We kept our focus and could have won it in the end.”