KEVIN KEEGAN accused his Newcastle players of lacking passion after seeing his multi million pound team given a 4-0 Charity Shield trouncing by Manchester United at Wembley yesterday.

The Double winners strolled to a comfortable victory thanks to goals from Eric Cantona, Nicky Butt, David Beckham and Roy Keane.

It was a bitter disappointment for Keegan, who invested £15 million in striker Alan Shearer two weeks ago. The England star was anonymous as last season's runners up were outfought and out manoeuvred.

Keegan tore into his senior players after the defeat, saying: "I am a passionate person. I look at my Newcastle badge and I am proud of it.

"But the hunger and passion was missing from our game. We looked out of sorts and treated it as a pre season warm up.

"There looked to be a massive gulf between the two clubs. I just hope I am wrong.

He added: "The key to our game is to get the ball down and pass it about. We didn't do that and I don't think we matched them for work rate either.

"We were invited to play as Manchester United won the Double. But it's been terrible and I wish they had invited someone else.

"We didn't come here just to be shot at and I felt sorry for our fans."

Shearer linked up for the first time with Les Ferdinand, but the front pair struggled to hit it off.

The one consolation for Keegan was the performance of substitute Faustino Asprilla, with the Geordie boss saying: "He did more in five minutes than the rest did in 90. But we know Alan will play better and the partnership with Les will get better."

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson saluted his side after the victory, which gave them a huge psychological lift going into the season.

He said: "The important message the result gives me is that it tells me that my players are still [hungry for success. They have just won the Double, but they are a young team and have a lot of mountains to climb.

"We all played superbly well, probably as best we have ever played at Wembley. The team that won the Double deserved to start the match and it was a very emphatic victory.

"I think Newcastle approached it as a big, big game. But for us it was just coming back to Wembley."

Ferguson unveiled two of his new summer signings, Karel Poborsky and Jordi Cruyff.

Poborsky immediately took the eye to win a round of applause from the Old Trafford boss. He said: "Poborsky has been sensational in training. He is very quick and very positive. He does certain things that give us a different pattern. He is also tenacious as well."

Ferguson pointed an accusing finger at Newcastle defender Philippe Albert, who was involved in a clash with Cantona which led to the Frenchman being booked. He said: "The booking was next to nothing. It was only a shove and Albert made a lot of it."

Shearer said: "We were hopeless - especially in the first half but we can only get better. It's early days yet, but we have got to defend as well as score goals."

Cantona, United's new captain following the departure of Steve Bruce, was voted the man of the match. He said: "It is important to win these type of games. Was I surprised by the scoreline? Well I'll say `yes' to be polite."