Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's record for Man United against Newcastle United

It was the very definition of 'taking one for the team.'

With Newcastle United's Rob Lee streaking away to score and almost certainly end Manchester United's Premier League title chances, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made a lung-busting run and a split-second decision.

Allow Lee to score past Raimond van der Gouw and see United's championship chances go up in smoke or take him out, swallow the red card but allow United to gain a potentially crucial point?

Solskjaer chose the second option, was dismissed by Uriah Rennie and walked off to a standing ovation from the Old Trafford crowd for his selflessness.

Trouble was, United still didn't win the title as Arsenal stormed back to steal their crown, and Alex Ferguson gave the Norwegian the infamous hairdryer treatment and a fine.

'I was applauded off but I wasn't applauded by the gaffer,' Solskjaer later recalled to FourFourTwo.

'He laid down the law with me and said: 'At Manchester United we never win that way; we win by fair play.' It was an eye-opener for me.

'Some managers would have said 'well done, son' but he would not accept that way of winning, which says everything about him.'

And as Solskjaer, United's interim manager, attempts to slowly but surely restore Ferguson's guiding principles to an underachieving team, it's Newcastle who provide the next obstacle.

Solskjaer, whose three wins from three games in caretaker charge have been achieved with plenty of panache, takes his team to St James' Park in the Premier League on Wednesday night.

And his previous meetings with Newcastle have been, on the whole, pretty eventful.

If Solskjaer's red card in 1998 was bad, then his first encounter with the Geordies after signing for United from Molde in the summer of 1996 was downright ugly.

The 5-0 mauling Ferguson's team were handed by their chief title rivals in October 1996 went down in Premier League folklore and would certainly have been an eye-opener for the young Norwegian.

He toiled up front alongside Eric Cantona before being hooked rather ingloriously for midfielder Jordi Cruyff at two goals down on 56 minutes. In fairness to Solskjaer, things deteriorated quickly in his absence.

His next encounters with the Tyneside club would come in his more familiar role as an impact sub. He played 18 minutes of a vital 1-0 win at St James' in December 1997.

And it was against Newcastle that United secured the second leg of their famous Treble in 1999.

Solskjaer, unusually, completed the full 90 minutes of the comfortable 2-0 win over Newcastle at Wembley, where goals from Teddy Sheringham and Paul Scholes won the FA Cup.

As we all know, four days later Solskjaer would write himself indelibly into United history when his outstretched leg in stoppage time won the Champions League final against Bayern Munich.

Other starts against Newcastle in the title-winning seasons to follow were less memorable but he excelled during two high-scoring meetings with them in the 2002-03 campaign.

Solskjaer scored United's fifth in a thrilling 5-3 win at Old Trafford and was scored the first of their six goals in a rampant 6-2 win at St James' Park during the title run-in.

A number of injury-plagued seasons followed, but there was one final flourish in October 2006.

Solskjaer scored both goals in a 2-0 Old Trafford win that returned Ferguson's side to the Premier League summit, a position they would not relinquish until the trophy was under lock and key in May.

If Solskjaer can embark on a similarly impressive sequence, starting at Newcastle on Wednesday night, then his Old Trafford tenure may prove to be longer-lived than expected.