Boss Rues Poor Decisions

Sir Alex admitted United’s chances of winning a fourth consecutive Premier League title “slipped away” on Sunday as the Reds were held to a 0-0 draw at Ewood Park on Sunday.

The result leaves the Reds a point behind Chelsea, who will have the chance to extend their lead further on Tuesday when they host Bolton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge. United, who now have just four games to play, struggled to create clear-cut chances, despite dominating possession.

“It’s going to be very, very difficult to win this league now,” Sir Alex said. “We’ll have a lifeline if Chelsea blow it, but in their eyes they have an easy game against Bolton on Tuesday. They’ll expect to win that and that would put them four points clear.

“Our play today in the last third wasn’t good enough [and the result] isn’t what we expected given the amount of possession we had. We had the chances in the game – I don’t think Blackburn made any chances – but dominating possession isn’t enough. You need to take your chances. We had enough opportunities to create chances in the last third. We should have done better.”

The Reds’ cause wasn’t helped by injuries to Ryan Giggs, John O’Shea and Rio Ferdinand. Ferdinand’s groin tweak arrived 10 minutes from time, after United had already made three substitutions.

“We were a little unlucky with Rio’s injury – that effectively reduced us to 10 men at the end,” the boss said. “John O’Shea also got an injury and Ryan Giggs felt his hamstring in the first half. Things conspired against us a little bit in that respect but we still had enough possession to win the game.”