Boss Praises 'Sensible' Reds

Sir Alex praised his players after a "sensible performance" against Liverpool earned the Reds a place in the FA Cup fourth round.

United gained an early foothold in the game through Ryan Giggs' second-minute penalty and were further boosted just after the half-hour mark when Liverpool had captain Steven Gerrard sent-off.

While the slim scoreline meant the visitors were never completely out of it, Sir Alex felt his side were always in control of the tie.

"It was a sensible performance," he told MUTV. "We didn't do anything stupid and against the ten men we worked the ball about and came through easily enough.

"Anything can happen when it's only 1-0 - the FA Cup is famous for that. I watched the Newcastle/Stevenage game yesterday and Newcastle were reasonably comfortable, but then Stevenage have a shot which cannons in off the defender and the game changes. That's what the FA Cup is about and fortunately we didn't do anything stupid to cause us any embarrassment.

"It's amazing it ended only 1-0," he added. "Sometimes when a team goes down to ten men you get that resilient attitude and Liverpool were certainly resilient, but we should have put it to bed. It could have been three or four in the second half."

United's early breakthrough came after a foul by Daniel Agger on Dimitar Berbatov in the area. Howard Webb wasted no time in pointing to the spot and Sir Alex insists it was the correct decision.

"I thought it was a penalty and Dimitar said he was definitely clipped," revealed the manager. "On the replay you can see he slightly touches him, but it was enough to upset his momentum and bring him down. There would be no reason for Dimitar to go down anyway, he's not that kind of player and he was in a good position. So I think it was right.

"It was a marvellous penalty from Ryan, and it had to be because he was facing a really good goalkeeper. It's just a pity we didn't get the goal from open play which we should have had."