Ferguson watched on as United were kept three points behind City
in the league table, after Roberto
Mancini's side cruised to a home victory over
Liverpool on Tuesday. However, the Scot is remaining calm despite a
second successive league defeat.
"Advantage to them [City] of course," Ferguson told Sky
Sports. "They played yesterday and got the three points, and
we played today and didn't manage to win - so of course they have
the advantage. It's not a time to panic - we have the experience to
cope with that.
"Losing a game at this time of the year, you don't want it, but
it sometimes can happen - you have seen some of the results
recently. But obviously, we need to get the show on the road in
terms of the run-in, particularly in March and April."
Ferguson also conceded that Newcastle striker
Demba Ba was too
much of a "handful" for his side. Ba got the ball rolling as
Alan
Pardew's side claimed the victory, punishing
Rio Ferdinand for
some sloppy defending as he volleyed past
Anders
Lindegaard.
Strike partner
Shola Ameobi also
played a key role in the build-up to the goal - flicking on
Tim Krul's deep
free-kick - and Ferguson acknowledged after the game that the two
powerful strikers had caused his side huge problems, before
Yohan Cabaye's
free-kick extinguished their hopes of coming away with
something.
"They are very strong, big aggressive lads," Ferguson said.
"They didn't tear us apart but they were a handful.
"The story of the game was they had two fantastic strikes which
put them in the driving seat. The second one was a killer for us,
it was a marvellous strike.
Guess it's time Rio & Rooney
hang up their boots. They really sucks big time !
