Sir Alex Ferguson said referees should not be
responsible for calculating the amount of time to add on after
watching Aston Villa beat Manchester United.
Ferguson argued his case vociferously with fourth
official Michael Jones at Old Trafford after three minutes of extra
time had been signalled.
The United boss said: "It has to be taken out of the
referee's hand.
"There were two stoppages of two minutes three seconds,
but we only played three minutes added time."
Aston Villa's victory, sealed by Gabriel Agbonlahor's
first-half strike, was their first in the league - home or away -
over Manchester United since 1983.
And it put them up to third in the Premier League table, while
United fell three points behind leaders Chelsea, who had earlier
been held to a draw by Everton.
Ferguson went on: "Second half I think we deserved something.
There wasn't much in it first half, they probably just shaded it
and deserved the goal.
"Second half we pummelled them, had a lot of good chances and
didn't get any.
"We are camped in their box and if we take one of those chances
then the game would have probably changed. It's just one of those
days it wasn't going in."
However, he also paid tribute to the spirit shown by Martin
O'Neill's team, who defended with great skill in the second
half.
"Every man jack of them has put in the extra 10 yards to get to
the ball. We closed them down but it was a very strong effort from
them."
Ferguson remained calm about his team's chances of retaining
their Premier League title.
"It's not an easy league. I say that time and time again. If we
get to January within touching distance of the leaders then we're
in with a great chance."
A delighted O'Neill said his team had played "cleverly".
"There is a good confidence about the team and great ability,"
he said.
"There's a fine set of players coming through. If on the day
we're capable of scoring goals then I think we have a chance. Just
recently we've tightened up a wee bit and that's made a marked
improvement.
"Manchester United penned us in and that caused us a few
problems, but when we broke we still had a little chance to do
something.
"We had a bit of luck when Wayne Rooney hit the bar and perhaps
after what's happened in the past on trips here we deserved that
little bit of luck.
"It's a great win for us, gives us a boost of confidence but we
have a difficult programme between now and the new year."<!-- E
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