Sir Alex: This Was A Lesson To Us

Sir Alex Ferguson says United's 2-1 win over Blackburn shows the Reds must “fight for our lives” to win the title.

United can expect 12 more battles to clinch an 18th league title. Wayne Rooney put the Reds in front, but Roque Santa Cruz levelled for a spirited Rovers team, and it took a fabulous free-kick from Cristiano Ronaldo to seal the win.

“It was a great lesson for us,” said Sir Alex. “It tells you what this league is like. There’s no way we can forecast winning the league when you get difficult games like this. Blackburn are down at the bottom, they’re going to fight for their lives. That’s what you expect from every team in the bottom eleven. It’s a difficult league.

“A lot of people are talking about us winning the league, but we must dismiss it. This was a great reminder that we’re going to have to focus on every game. Just as the teams at the bottom are fighting for their lives, we have to fight for ours.”

Sir Alex wasn’t wholly convinced by his team’s display. “We probably just deserved it, but only just,” he added. “We were in a controlled position and gave away a goal. When you consider the way we’ve defended over the last ten weeks or so, that was not indicative of our performances. It was a very soft goal to give away. Blackburn got a lot of resolve from that. They became very determined in the second half, they put on a great show and Sam will be pleased with them. They made it a real fight.”

But winning tough matches is a quality all champions possess. “Sometimes when you don’t play at your very best, you can get a result like that and it hopefully goes towards winning the title,” he said. It certainly looks good, now eight points clear. But the United boss won’t be counting his chickens yet.