Sir Alex Ferguson rued "a soft goal" and "a killer"
strike after defeat at Fulham.
While the manager acknowledged the impact of
United's ongoing injury crisis,
he also felt aggrieved at the way the Reds gifted a breakthrough to
the home side. Paul Scholes' uncharacteristic error enabled Danny
Murphy to step forward and beat Tomasz Kuszczak.
"We lost a terribly soft goal for the first one and that gave them
a platform to build on," admitted Sir Alex on
MUTV.
"It was important for them and it was a bad one for us. It was an
uphill fight after that, and then the second goal right after
half-time (scored by Bobby Zamora) killed the game. That was a
killer for us. We didn't anticipate that."
Coming just seconds after the restart, Zamora's strike made it
difficult to assess what Sir Alex might have said to his team at
half-time in tactical terms. With United now trailing by two
goals, the boss felt compelled to change his personnel -
sending on Dimitar Berbatov and Fabio for midfielder Darron Gibson
and the inexperienced Ritchie De Laet.
"When we went further behind, we had to change and go to a back
four - with young Fabio at right-back, and Darren Fletcher and
Michael Carrick at centre-backs - because we had to chase the game.
The referee made a poor decision for the third goal (it came from a
free-kick) but by then I think it was very difficult for us. We
couldn’t get behind Fulham at all, they defended very well, they
were organised.... it was a difficult day for us really."
Despite the team's travails, the United fans remained vocal
throughout the game. Sir Alex said, "They were fantastic,
absolutely brilliant. They brought a bit of Christmas cheer."