This time, fan power hurts Sir Alex Ferguson

 
21 August 2012

Teams often come away from Old Trafford complaining that the referee was swayed by the home crowd but this time it was Sir Alex Ferguson, who felt his side were hard done-by.

The Manchester United manager believes the Goodison Park faithful put pressure on Andre Marriner and that the referee missed a possible penalty in the first half when Danny Welbeck went down under a challenge from Phil Jagielka.

Ferguson said: “There were a couple of moments: I thought Danny Welbeck maybe was pushed as he went in the box — that was a big moment. Tom Cleverley’s shot was then saved by Jagielka on the line in the second half.

“We had these kind of moments but I’m not criticising the team, they worked well and played some great football. It’s difficult here, you have the crowd influencing the referee all the time and it makes it difficult for you.”

Despite defending his side, Ferguson admitted they needed to play more to the strengths of new recruit Robin van Persie.

The £24million signing from Arsenal came on for the last 20 minutes but could not conjure up an equaliser to cancel out Marouane Fellaini’s goal.

Ferguson said: “We were a wee bit disappointing in terms of finishing off our approach play. We played around Van Persie too much.”

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