Manchester United's 2-0 defeat at Fulham on
Saturday left Sir Alex Ferguson not surprisingly frustrated,
with the Red Devils boss disappointed with his team's first-half
performance and also the second-half dismissal of Wayne
Rooney.
The Premier League champions suffered a 2-0 defeat at Craven
Cottage and ended the game with only nine men, as Paul Scholes was
dismissed for deliberate handball in the incident that saw Danny
Murphy convert a penalty and Rooney red-carded for dissent.
Ferguson, who also played down fears that Dimitar Berbatov had
suffered a serious injury, despite the Bulgarian leaving Craven
Cottage on crutches, was angry with referee Phil Dowd for showing
Rooney a second yellow card for an incident the Scot considered to
be innocuous.
Ferguson told MUTV: "Did he (Rooney) throw the ball at the
referee? The ball was thrown direct to where the free-kick was
being taken - did it hit the referee? No.
"He threw it because he wanted to get the game going. What can
you say about that?
"There wasn't a bad tackle in the game but John Pantsil was
booked in the first half for nothing - it was just a tackle.
Tackling isn't always perfect - I thought it was totally
unfair.
"But there's no point talking about the referee - we didn't play
well enough to win the game in the first half and that's why we
lost it.
"In the second half I thought we did really well - they kept
going and credit to them.
"But we're home to Aston Villa in our next game - and that will
be crucial."
After United's reverse to Liverpool last week, Saturday's defeat
to Fulham consigned the team to back-to-back Premier
League losses for the first time in 147 games.
