• FA Cup

Ferguson blames fatal 15 minutes after break

ESPN staff
April 16, 2011
Sir Alex Ferguson had no complaints with Paul Scholes' red card © PA Photos
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Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson blamed the end of his side's treble dream on the slack defending which led to Yaya Toure's goal - along with Dimitar Berbatov's glaring misses as Manchester City reached the FA Cup final.

"The first 15 minutes after half-time cost us the game," Ferguson said. "Slack moments. Edwin [van der Sar] had a bad kick out and Michael Carrick couldn't hold it and it was a goal.

"From then on, they were defending apart from a couple of counter-attacks. It's disappointing as we should've been ahead in the first half as we were the better team.

"The chances that Dimitar missed - there was a great save by the keeper but the second chance, from under the bar, if he'd have scored there, I had a feeling whoever scored first would win the match."

Ferguson challenged his players, who had won their previous seven matches, to bounce back in Tuesday night's Premier League game at Newcastle.

"It's a major game on Tuesday up at Newcastle," he told MUTV. "We're getting recovered to get ready for the game on Tuesday. It doesn't matter when you play, you know you've got to recover and get on a winning streak again."

Paul Scholes was given his marching orders with 20 minutes remaining in the match, for a high challenge on Pablo Zabaleta. His manager had no complaints.

"We've seen over his career Paul has had unbelievable moments - he's one of the greatest players this club has ever had," Ferguson said.

"But he has his red-mist moments - he caught the boy on the thigh."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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