Rio: No Hangover From Madrid

Rio Ferdinand insists the Reds are not suffering from any kind of hangover from last month's Real Madrid defeat, despite some disappointing results of late.

After losing out in the FA Cup quarter-final replay away at Chelsea, having initially been in control of the tie at Old Trafford, the Reds went down 2-1 in the Manchester derby on Monday night.

Ferdinand maintains the players simply didn't reach the levels needed against Chelsea and City and says the results were not affected by the Reds' Champions League exit.

"There has been no hangover at all," he told MUTV's Countdown to Kick-Off show. "The Madrid game was a weird one - you're gutted obviously, but it didn't feel the same as when we lost to City because we didn't play well in that game.

"Against Madrid we did everything that was asked of us as players, but one decision took us off the rails and had a big impact on the way the game finished. So I wouldn't say that [about there being a hangover].

"We've had a couple of hard games against two teams [Chelsea and City] that are up there [near the top]. We've got no divine right to beat those teams, but we should have beaten them given we were playing at home. That's the disappointing thing. But no, there is no hangover."

Despite the loss to City, United remain well in control of their title destiny and Ferdinand says the players are simply focusing on finishing the job.

"Inevitably you have a bit of a down period for a day or so but you've got to dust yourself down and move on, and that's what we're doing," he added. "We go into the Stoke game [on Sunday] knowing we need to put a good performance and result together.

"What you aim for at the start of the season is to get some consistency within your team and that's what we've done. The results we've had have been churned out through hard work and applying ourselves in the right way and we've got to continue that.

"One defeat in 19 is some going. We can't allow all that hard work to be undone by one or two bad results of late."