Reds Relieved After Late Win

Gary Neville admits there was a huge sense of relief in the United dressing-room after Sunday’s last-gasp win at Stoke.

Javier Hernandez scored the first and last goals in a game that looked destined for a draw after Stoke substitute Tuncay netted an 81st-minute equaliser.

“It was important we won,” Neville said. “Drawing so many away games hasn’t been good enough this season, so today there was a lot of relief at the end.

“When that Tuncay goal went in we thought ,‘Oh no, not again’. But we got there and Javier scored a great goal.”

Neville started the game, his 600th for the club, but played only 45 minutes. Sir Alex replaced the club captain with Wes Brown at half-time after Neville was lucky to escape a second booking just before the interval.

“I was lucky not to be sent off,” Neville admitted. “I didn’t think the first one was a booking – I got the ball – and then with the second one the referee’s gone a little easy on me, to be honest.

“I was disappointed to come off at half-time but [playing 600 games] means a lot. I was a bit rusty at points in the first half but I wanted to play 90 minutes today. I’m disappointed from that point of view but we got a great result and that’s the most important thing.”