Carrick: We Paid The Penalty

Michael Carrick felt Manchester United deserved a better outcome at White Hart Lane after "putting bodies on the line" to resolutely defend a slender advantage.

The midfielder may have been granted his wish against his former club Tottenham had the officials taken a different view of Steven Caulker's challenge on Wayne Rooney when the Reds were still leading 1-0.

"It was as clear a penalty as you're going to get," Carrick told MUTV. "We're disappointed with that because it would have put us in a great position. Big decisions like that can change games and today it did."

Carrick's team-mate Rio Ferdinand concurred, "One hundred per cent, it was a penalty. I can't believe he didn't give it. The linesman didn't really help us on that side [of the pitch] at all during the second half. We're disappointed the referee didn't give what was a stonewall penalty."

Both United players were involved in a sterling rearguard action, with highlights including Ferdinand's potentially goal-saving tackle on Jermain Defoe and Carrick's jockeying to win a goal-kick against rapid right-winger Aaron Lennon.

"While Tottenham were coming at us, I thought we defended very well as a team," said Carrick. "People were putting their bodies on their line to block shots and we hoped we could see the game out.

"The game-plan worked well. We set up slightly differently today but we defended well as a team and looked really strong.

"Without having a lot of chances in the game we still looked dangerous and I still felt we could score again, but the final pass just didn't quite fall for us. We were in a good position but we just couldn't quite see it out. It's disappointing after leading for so long, but we just have to move on and we can take a lot of positives from the game."

One such positive would be the play which led to the opening goal, scored yet again by Robin van Persie.

Ferdinand recalled: "The ball got worked out to Tom [Cleverley] who put in a great delivery and whatever Robin is touching at the moment seems to be going in. That was a great start for us.

"I don't think we can be too down about coming away from here with a point because Spurs are a confident team under new management and they've been doing well. We'll take that point."