Newcastle United star reveals disappointment amid fresh injury concern after Man United win

Willock headed the ball in from close range after being set-up by Allan Saint-Maximin before Callum Wilson headed in Newcastle’s second in the closing stages. But Willock felt he could have scored a hat-trick after seeing a close range effort saved by David De Gea and another good opportunity blaze narrowly over the crossbar in the first half.

“I was a bit disappointed not to score in the first half,” admitted the 23-year-old. “I had a couple of chances and they didn’t go in for me.

“But as I said before, we have a brilliant group here and brilliant staff members who picked me back up at the half-time interval and told me keep chipping away and it’ll come and it did, so I’m really happy to be honest.”

The win sees The Magpies move ahead of Man United and up to third in the Premier League table with 11 games remaining.

Willock added: “The manager has put hard work into us to get us playing like that. We want to dominate teams on and off the ball, winning our duals and I feel like we’ve got the athleticism to do it and that’s how we want to play.

"We have the athletic players in our team to do it and we need to continue playing like that because I feel we can go a long way.”

Willock was withdrawn in the closing stages as head coach Eddie Howe claimed after the match that there were slight concerns regarding the midfielder’s hamstring. He will be assessed ahead of Wednesday’s trip to West Ham United (8pm kick-off).

"I’m unsure at the moment,” Howe said regarding his squad’s injury situation. “Joe Willock is the obvious one. He was feeling his hamstring, but he wasn’t sure if it was cramp or something more sinister.

"So we’ll wait and see. A couple more players just nursing little things because of the physical game that it was.”

Willock scored against West Ham in the 1-1 draw at the London Stadium last season.