Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand concedes their defending wasn't good enough in victory over Newcastle United.

United edged a seven-goal thriller 4-3 last night.

"We seem to make sure the punters get their money's worth when they come to the ground at the moment, but it was a great show of character from the lads at the start of a really busy schedule," Rio told MUTV. It was really important to get the win, no matter how we did it.

"The manager has got that never-say-die sprit and it filters down through the club - we take it out on the pitch and reflect that. All the way through the game, we were creating chances and looked like we were on the cusp of scoring goals.

"It was really important to get the win. Their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves and we didn't finish off a couple of chances that we created, but we have always got confidence in our boys and in the fact that we are going to score.

"When you're conceding goals at any level, you want to stop it. We've let in far too many goals and need to change that. We have to make a big effort to push on from a good position. If we're going to maintain where we are, we have to sort ourselves out."