Sir Alex
Ferguson maintains he has "no worries'' over the ability
of goalkeeper Ben
Foster.
The 26-year-old endured a difficult afternoon at Wembley, where
Chelsea won the FA Community Shield on penalties following an
action-packed curtain raiser to the new campaign.
Foster is standing in for Edwin van der
Sar and is likely to feature for England in the
forthcoming friendly against Holland.
And while Ferguson admits it was not the best display from
Foster, who had a two-year loan spell at Watford, the Scot insists
he has every confidence the keeper can deliver.
"Knowing Ben and the ability which he has, he should have done
better with the second goal,'' said the United boss, who was also
less than impressed by the performance of referee Chris Foy.
"However, it was his first big challenge. He has waited a long
time, has had his injuries and in pre-season I spread the load
between the three keepers, and maybe we did not have enough minutes
for him.
"But the important thing is, knowing his ability, it means I do
not have any worries about him.''
Ferguson was in no doubt the decisive moment of the match came
in the build up to Chelsea's second goal on 70 minutes.
Substitute Michael
Ballack appeared to elbow Patrice
Evra as the full-back charged down the left flank, but
with the United player down, Foy allowed play to continue as
Chelsea broke quickly, with Frank
Lampard's shot beating Foster inside the far post.
Although the Premier League champions - who took the lead
through Nani, later to go off with an injured shoulder - forced a
penalty shoot-out when Wayne
Rooney slotted home in stoppage time, Chelsea keeper
Petr
Cech was the hero with two saves.
Ferguson, however, believes Foy should have intervened when Evra
was left flat out on the Wembley turf.
"I think the referee has made a rod for his own back,'' he said.
"He stopped the game twice, first when Nani was down, then on the
second occasion Ballack has gone down, which we have seen before
with him.
"I asked the referee, he said he thought it was a serious
incident, and he thought the player needed treatment, whereas he
[Ballack] was up right away. Once he has done that, I do not
understand why he has not stopped the game when Evra is lying
down.
"With a replay you can see Ballack has elbowed the boy, and if
the referee had seen it properly, it is a red card. The referee is
in line with it, and should have at least stopped the game, but he
did not.
"Of course, then they went on and scored the second goal. It is
hard to blame the Chelsea players because it is a professional
game. But it is making it very difficult for referees [to know]
when players are acting to get the game stopped.
"It is an area I am concerned about and we have got to find a
solution.''
Portugal midfielder Nani impressed, but Ferguson revealed he
could now be set for a spell on the sidelines.
"We could not put the shoulder back in, so that is the worrying
part for us,'' said Ferguson, who has had to reshape his attack
following the summer departures of Cristiano
Ronaldo and Carlos
Tevez.
"He had done very well and we are very pleased with his
performance.''
Ferguson felt United should have put the game beyond Chelsea
following their dominant first half, with defender Ricardo
Carvalho eventually pulling the FA Cup winners back in
it on 52 minutes.
"We should really have put the game to bed,'' he said. "When you
get chances in big matches and do not take them, you can suffer and
we did.''