Cristiano Ronaldo was involved in a tunnel bust-up as Manchester United took their Premier League winning run to 11 games.
The Portuguese winger was the victim of a wild forearm smash from Steven Taylor just before half-time, provoking fury from United players.
The pair were pulled apart in the tunnel as Ronaldo branded Taylor a "rubbish footballer" in a bad team. Taylor retorted by telling Ronaldo he would always be "an ugly player".
It was a fiesty match at St James's Park with Newcastle's Oba Martins drawing blood when his elbow caught Nemanja Vidic on the cheek. The win puts United seven points clear at the top with a game in hand over Chelsea and Liverpool.
Ferguson said: "Newcastle were well pumped up, we should have dealt with them better. But coming back from 1-0 down to win, we have got to be pleased.
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"We have played better but we were careless with our passing. Newcastle were pumped up because it was a massive game for them. They are a great football club."
The champions had to overhaul Newcastle's ninthminute lead when Peter Lovenkrands capitalised on an Edwin Van der Sar spill to tap home. It was the first goal he had conceded in the league for 1310 minutes.
But Wayne Rooney smashed home from 20 yards out after 20 minutes to level. And Dimitar Berbatov was presented with his 13th goal of the season, a simple tap-in, when Ryan Taylor tried to chest back to keeper Steve Harper but miscued and allowed Ji-Sung Park to cross.
Newcastle are now in desperate trouble themselves. They have claimed just six points from their last ten league games and are flirting with the relegation zone.
Stand-in boss Chris Hughton confirmed reports of a training ground bust-up between Shola Ameobi and Andy Carroll, but dismissed it as 'minor'.
He admitted that Taylor's challenge on Ronaldo had been 'headstrong.'
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