Manchester United Reaction

Paul Jewell

Paul Jewell

"We came with a plan to frustrate Manchester United, and to a certain extent, it worked. Chris Kirkland made a really good save early on, but after all the pressure United, they didn't really have too many really good opportunities. We had a game plan that wasn't our usual style, but it was working.

"We had an idea that Ronaldo was going to come on at some point, but even against the best teams, you cannot concede from set pieces. They're good enough to score from open play, so you certainly don't want to gift them from set plays. We did that against Chelsea, and we did it again today.

"Manchester United were better than us in all departments, I understand that, but if we had kept a clean sheet for another ten or fifteen minutes, they might have got a little bit edgy, and the crowd might have got on top of them, and that was our only hope. But we'll never know now. To concede in the manner we did is annoying.

"To lose to a free header from a corner and a penalty is really annoying. We knew that whatever we would have got here would have been a bonus.

"Now we have to go to Watford in a positive frame of mind. We've just played Arsenal, Chelsea and Man. Utd in the last four games, and there have been a lot of good points to take out of those games and we have to take that into Saturday."

Alex Ferguson

"There was a lot of elation when we heard the result from the Chelsea match but I don't think we're going to get carried away, certainly the players won't.

Sir Alex Ferguson

"They didn't get carried away in their performance, they maintained their work ethic and kept the passing going. There was nobody trying to overdo it and there was no showboating and that's a good sign.

"It could have been easy, with it being Christmas time and a record Old Trafford crowd, for some of them think it would be easy. But they earned the result today by working.

"We didn't expect that (Chelsea's result) today but it is the nature of football. Nobody expected us to lose against West Ham, with the control of the game and the possession we had, but we did.

"And it just tells you that football can knock you in the head and turn the tables on you all the time. What's going to win the league is a consistency, and if we can maintain the consistency we've shown over the first half of the season we'll have a marvellous chance."