Moyes: City's Second Was Key

David Moyes felt Edin Dzeko's second goal - rather than his lightning first strike - was the one which killed the derby in Manchester City's favour.

The Bosnian forward put the Blues ahead at Old Trafford after just 45 seconds and although he was denied a swift follow-up when David De Gea made a stunning save, he went on to double his tally in the 56th minute. In between, Moyes felt his team gained a foothold in the contest and were, for many pundits, the better side towards the end of the first period.

"City started very fast, we lost a goal after 40 or so seconds and because of that we were on the back foot right away," Moyes admitted on MUTV.

"I thought we got to grips with the game after 15 minutes. We were better then and maybe a little unfortunate not to get a goal back before half-time. I thought we were a little careless a couple of times going forward - we didn't pick out the right cross or the right pass. That was the disappointing thing for me."

Even though United entered the break still trailing, the margin was slender enough to encourage Moyes and the watching faithful. The boss said: "The message at half-time [to the players] was: 'Look, we're right in this game. Let's make sure we do things and let's get a goal back as the half wears on.'"

As it was, the better start to the second half was made by City, who piled on the pressure again. But the United boss felt some of his players were the architects of their own downfall as Dzeko stole in to convert Samir Nasri's corner with relative ease.

"I thought we brought it on ourselves," he said. "We didn't play well enough from the back to get it out and then we conceded a corner and the marking let us down. We conceded a goal from a corner when we should have been defending tighter and making sure we didn't concede. The key was that second goal. We started the second half badly and it was poor marking for the goal."

When Yaya Toure rattled in City’s third strike in injury time, it rounded off “another difficult night” for the United manager and meant the Blues matched Liverpool’s victory at Old Trafford nine days previously, goal for goal. “March has been a really difficult month,” he added. “I thought it would be a tough year for us but I hoped we'd be more competitive and closer to the top than we are."

The main positive for the manager was, as per previous defeats, the vociferous support his side received from the stands. "Thanks everybody for the support," he said. "It was great tonight - we had a lot of support for the team during the game.

"I genuinely feel that most people understand that this [United's situation on the field] is something that's going to take a bit of time to alter.

"It can't be something that we're going to do from one Saturday to the next. It's not going to change dramatically in the short time between now and the end of the season."