Michael Carrick cut a frustrated figure at St James’ Park as his unbeaten start as Manchester United head coach came to an abrupt end in a 2-1 defeat to Newcastle United, despite the hosts playing much of the match with 10 men.

United arrived on Tyneside buoyed by a seven-game unbeaten run under Carrick, whose tenure had begun with eye-catching victories over Manchester City and Arsenal. That surge had propelled the team back into the Champions League places and stirred faint talk of an unlikely late charge toward the top of the Premier League.

Instead, Carrick was left to digest what he described as the worst performance of his reign. Newcastle midfielder Jacob Ramsey was dismissed in first-half stoppage time, yet United failed to make the numerical advantage count and were punished in the 90th minute when substitute William Osula struck the winner.

“Disappointed, obviously. Bitterly disappointed. It hurts,” Carrick admitted afterwards. “We definitely came here in good shape, looking to get something from the game, if not win the game, and we’re disappointed with the way it panned out. We can be an awful lot better.”

The defeat snapped a sequence of six wins and a draw since Carrick replaced Ruben Amorim in January, following a brief caretaker spell from Darren Fletcher. That run had steadied a season that had threatened to unravel and restored a measure of belief in the squad.

Results elsewhere offered a sliver of consolation. Aston Villa’s loss to Chelsea meant United remained third, level on points with Unai Emery’s side but ahead on goal difference. Even so, the gap to leaders Arsenal stands at a daunting 16 points, underlining the scale of the task facing Carrick.

The former United midfielder has consistently tried to dampen expectations, insisting his players must focus on each game rather than the table. On the eve of the trip to Newcastle, he had cautiously suggested that catching Arsenal was “not out of the question” but would require “a lot of football matches” to be won.

That ambition now looks more remote, yet Carrick’s message remains one of realism rather than resignation. United return to Old Trafford next, where a home fixture against Bournemouth offers an immediate test of their resilience and of their manager’s ability to turn pain into progress.