Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson claims that his side were quite lucky to escape without a penalty after Michael Carrick tripped Danny Murphy in last night’s game against Fulham.
The Red Devils welcomed the Cottagers to Old Trafford yesterday, with the aim of regaining top spot in the rankings after http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roberto-c31294 Mancini’s Manchester City were held to a draw by Stoke.
United picked up the pace from the start but there were few clear cut chances for them. Ryan Giggs’ put in a superb shift on his 903rdappearance for the club and was denied a savoury goal on his landmark day, as Mark Schwarzer stopped his headed
effort on 10 minutes.
Although it was the hosts who were clearly in ascendency, Sir http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wayne-Rooney-c36736 who
proved to be the crucial difference.
Ashley Young’s cross was miserably cleared by Fulham, allowing http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jonny-Evans-c19085 to place it for Rooney, who made no mistake in finding the back of the net.
After the interval, things began to heat up as the visitors tried to crawl their way back into the game, but they were unsuccessful as United countered them by controlling the tempo match.
As the final whistle approached, it looked certain to be an incident free night, only for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michael-Carrick-c25282 to draw out a potential penalty claim from the Londoners.
The midfielder tripped http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Oliver-c28477 to waive play on.
Several players have reiterated that it was definitely a foul, which was also the opinion of United boss Sir Alex Ferguson.
"I think Michael has caught his heel. It wasn't a stonewaller but it could have been a penalty. Maybe he [the referee] was thinking about the one in the first half that we had. Certainly it was a claim, there's no question about that.”
"I think the referee has been a bit lenient when we had a claim for a penalty-kick in the first half. It was a clear handball. It was a claim and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Patrice-Evra-c29231 thought it was a stonewaller.”
“He thought he [Stephen Kelly] handled the ball as it was going into the penalty box and denied an opportunity and maybe he was thinking about that," the veteran tactician said.
Despite some close calls throughout the ninety minutes, United emerged with three points and are currently top of the table ahead of title-chasing Manchester City.
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