Monday, September 22, 2008

Ferguson defends booked players


Ferguson defends booked players



Manchester United manager boss Sir Alex Ferguson saw seven of his players booked in Sunday's 1-1 draw at Chelsea but did not feel it was a dirty match.

Ferguson also refused to be drawn on the performance of referee Mike Riley.

"It was a competitive game but I did not think there was one bad tackle in it," said Ferguson.

"People are saying what is going on here but it is difficult to say anything about the referee. I do not want to get involved."

However, United will now face questions from the Football Association as an investigation is automatically triggered when one side has six players cautioned and they could be fined up to £25,000.

Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari was quick to suggest any punishment meted out to United on the pitch was deserved.

"That is what the referee is there for," said Scolari. "If players do not respect him, it should be yellow and red cards. It doesn't matter who you are - Liverpool or Manchester United, whoever."

The FA is also likely to assess the clash between United defender Rio Ferdinand and Chelsea's Didier Drogba, which left the striker needing treatment.

That incident was the last of the match as Riley blew the whistle for full-time after the pair collided in the air.

Matters continued to be aggravated off the pitch as United's team coach was attacked after leaving Stamford Bridge.

A bottle was hurled from the pavement, cracking the windscreen, although no-one was injured, with United officials eager to play down the incident afterwards.

"There was an incident but the matter is now in the hands of the police," said a club spokesman.

As for the game itself, Scolari was relieved to escape with a point after injuries to Deco and Ricardo Carvalho.

Deco injured a thigh in the warm-up and Carvalho suffered a knee injury early on.

Scolari said: "The game is one of the best games we've played this season, because we have many problems.

"After we lost Deco, Manchester controlled the game for 15 minutes and they played better than us.

"They made a goal - and after this, we improved. We had more chances than them but we missed some chances in front of goal.

"At half-time I said we wanted Lampard and Ballack more up front, nearer the strikers - and we put Drogba on."

Ferguson admitted he was disappointed not to be leaving London with a victory after his side led for much of the game.

"I feel we have missed a good chance, obviously. If we had had a bit more energy, we would have been OK," he said.

"We started to drop off the pace a bit in terms of the speed we were playing at.

"That was a bit of a disappointment because it allowed them to regroup at half-time.

"We started to give the ball away in the second half and that got them back into the game. They had a couple of chances, but that's about all they had."

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