Boss Savours Reds' Spirit

United’s quest for the Premier League title is being propelled by the Reds’ unique character and defiance to adversity, according to Sir Alex Ferguson.

Despite being reduced to 10 men and facing a dogged Bolton side, United nabbed three vital points through substitute Dimitar Berbatov’s late winner at Old Trafford to open up a five-point lead over second-placed Arsenal.

Having seen his side prise points from the jaws of disappointment time and again over the years, Sir Alex was delighted to once again witness the indefatigable spirit within his players.

“It wasn’t a 100 percent top performance by us today, but we never gave in,” the Boss told MUTV. “It’s the character of this club. It’s a fantastic character. No other club in the country’s got that. We are fantastic when it comes to gritting our teeth and getting something out of a dead situation. We did it again today and full marks to them.

“The only way I can judge today is that we had five massive games in the last couple of weeks: two games against Marseille, we’ve been to Chelsea and Liverpool, we beat Arsenal in the FA Cup. It’s a hell of a programme and these lads deserve praise for that.”

Sir Alex also saluted the contribution of a baying home contingent, who cranked up the volume for the final stages to compensate for the absence of red-carded Jonny Evans.

“The fans were fantastic in the last 20 minutes, they got right behind us,” he said. “They really were magnificent, they really got us over the line. In actual fact we looked better at that point. The sending-off galvanised us a little bit.

"Players had to play all over the place. Everyone’s done a shift, worked their socks off and I think we’ve got a deserved win out of it. We were by far the better team, Bolton never presented a problem to us in the second half at all – they had a clear header in the end of course, but apart from that it was just us against them, our attack all the time.”