Since he arrived at Real Madrid from Manchester United in 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored hat-tricks at regular intervals.

Indeed, last month in an encounter against Celta Vigo, the Portuguese superstar set a La Liga record by scoring his 23rd hat-trick in Los Blancos colours.

It's a far cry from his time at Manchester United, where his highly respectable return of 118 goals in 292 appearances pales into insignificance when you take into account his return at the Bernabeu.

In fact, Ronaldo scored just one hat-trick during his six-year stint at Old Trafford, which came at the expense of Newcastle United seven years ago today.

The managerless Magpies made the trip without a victory in their last four outings, but they put in a spirited display during the first half and should have broken the deadlock when Michael Owen found the net, only for his effort to be incorrectly disallowed for offside.

It proved to be a crucial moment because just four minutes after the restart Ronaldo scored from a set-piece situation that he had won.

The hosts went on to double their lead in the 55th minute thanks to Newcastle goalkeeper Shay Given, who saw his poor clearance fall kindly for Giggs. In turn, the Welshman showed good awareness to pick out Carlos Tevez to score from close range.

Ronaldo made it 3-0 when he finished off a neat passing move involving Tevez and Wayne Rooney, before centre-back Rio Ferdinand got in on the act when he volleyed in from a tight angle.

It was in the 88th minute that Ronaldo's treble moment arrived. Jose Enrique's clearance only picked out the United winger on the edge of the box and having gained control, he saw his low effort deflect into the net off the helpless Newcastle full-back.

There was still enough time remaining for Tevez to add his second and United's sixth goal of the contest when his headed effort struck the underside of the bar and just crossed the line, despite the protest of Newcastle midfielder Alan Smith, who was red carded for dissent.

Speaking after the final whistle, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said: "I thought there were too many individuals in the first half. We tried to walk the ball into the net.

"Passing is the key element of our game and once we did that we were fantastic in the second half. We relaxed and expressed ourselves. Some of the passing and movement was absolutely outstanding."

Meanwhile, caretaker Newcastle boss Nigel Pearson added: "When you are going through a transition period you need things to be as smooth as possible. Results like this make it very difficult.

"But it is a reality check of exactly where we are at. There is loads to do at this football club."

MAN UNITED: Van der Sar; O'Shea, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra (Simpson); Ronaldo, Carrick, Anderson (Fletcher), Giggs (Nani); Rooney, Tevez

NEWCASTLE: Given; Carr, Taylor, Cacapa, Enrique; Milner (Viduka), Smith, Butt, N'Zogbia, Duff; Owen (Rozenhal)