Van Der Sar Beaten At Last After 14 Clean Sheets

The Dutch international had kept the ball out of his net in his last 14 league appearances before Lovenkrands scored after nine minutes.

Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar's record run of Premier League clean sheets was ended on Wednesday when Newcastle United's Peter Lovenkrands became the first person to score past him in more than 21 hours.

Van der Sar made an uncharacteristic error after just nine minutes to allow Lovenkrands a tap-in but it proved not to be too expensive as goals from Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov sealed a 2-1 victory that restored United's seven-point lead.

"Edwin van der Sar himself said he made a mess of it," United manager Alex Ferguson told Sky Sports.

"He would rather not have (seen his sequence broken) in such an important game away from home but it was going to happen some time."

The Dutchman, back in the side after being rested for the League Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur, had kept the ball out of his net in his last 14 league appearances before spilling a cross from Jonas Gutierrez at the feet of Lovenkrands.

Van der Sar, who surpassed the previous record of 10 Premier League shut-outs set by Chelsea's Petr Cech, last conceded a goal in the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal four months ago.