Sir Alex Ferguson said his side played like "real
champions" in the battling 1-1 draw at Stoke City on
Saturday.
The Reds had taken the lead through Nani's brilliant solo
effort, but Stoke have already shown this season, against Chelsea
and Liverpool, that the visit of the big teams holds no fears for
them and they ensured David De Gea had a busy afternoon in the
United goal.
Peter Crouch drew the home side level on 52 minutes and in the
end Sir Alex felt a point was a fair result.
"I was pleased with the performance from the lads - they battled
really hard and played like real champions," he told
MUTV afterwards.
"If Stoke were going to score it was probably going to be from a
set-piece. They've got some big lads in their team and they do keep
you under pressure that way.
"In terms of the attacking part we showed some good play and
maybe should have scored more. We've always done well here, but all
the changes we had to make today [with injuries to Evans, Hernandez
and Rooney] maybe just unsettled us a bit for parts of the
game.
"A draw is probably a fair result. It's a difficult place to
come to."
The manager was particularly pleased with his goalkeeper's
display after a string of top class saves.
"He had a couple of great saves in the first half and looked
very confident." added the boss. "He has terrific composure,
nothing disturbs him. He just sailed through the game."