We Just Never Give In

United’s fighting spirit and ability to remain calm and overturn a deficit won the Reds the match against Liverpool, according to Sir Alex Ferguson.

The United manager said his players reacted very well after going a goal down to Fernando Torres’ opener after five minutes. The Reds regrouped a saw out what Sir Alex described as “an intense match”.

”In these intense matches you just want to win them,” he said. “At this stage of the season, winning is the name of the game. We’ve been very consistent in the last two or three months. For periods today we played well, and in other periods we had to dig in and concentrate.

”It’s always difficult to lose a goal and come back and win. I was disappointed with Torres’ goal, he was unmarked. We didn’t defend it well. But we recovered from it and that is the important thing. It’s a great quality that Manchester United have, and it’s that quality that won us the game.”

Liverpool had their own complaints about the foul from Javier Mascherano on Antonio Valencia that led to the penalty for Wayne Rooney’s equaliser. But Sir Alex feels Liverpool’s Argentinian midfielder was lucky to remain on the field, instead only picking up a yellow card.

”I thought that with the penalty incident, it should have been a red card [for Mascherano]. There was no chance that Jamie Carragher could have got across because Valencia was too quick for him. Absolutely no way. OK we got the penalty but if you stop a player from having a goalscoring opportunity it’s a red card. Not today it wasn’t. Mascherano tugged him outside the area, but didn’t bring him down, it was only when Valencia got into the box he brought him down. So it was the right decision [to give a penalty].”

Rooney saw his initial spot-kick saved, but reacted quickly to steer home the rebound. ”Wayne said to me that he had changed his mind and gone the other way with his penalty. I said, ‘never change your mind’. But he got the rebound and it’s still a goal.”

Torres fluffed a chance to level for Liverpool late on, and Sir Alex was relieved the Spaniard missed as a draw would have been a result they did not deserve. “A draw would have flattered them, but in these games I don’t think they would have been bothered about being flattered. It would have been important for them, to help them get fourth place and perhaps helping to stop us winning the league. I don’t think they would have been bothered by scoring at any time.”