Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson accepted that the occasion got to both teams in the goalless derby draw against Manchester City at Eastlands. United remained unbeaten in the Barclays Premier League after the stalemate but Ferguson believes they had enough of the ball to conquer a City side he felt did not have as many attacking ambitions as his own.
"City are very difficult to beat on their own ground and obviously they set their stall out," he told Sky Sports 1.
"I think there was too much tension for it to be kind of match people thought it would be. They set their stall out in the second half and made it very difficult for us.
"It's a decent result but we don't count draws away from home as the target before the game. Our target is to win the game and I think we had enough possession to do that.
"Some of our football was good, we were good on the ball but we needed to create openings to win the match and we only really made two which was difficult."
Manchester City chief Roberto Mancini was rather more content with the result than his opposite number.
"I think it was a difficult game for both teams. I think the result is correct but we improved from last year because we didn't concede a goal in the last minute.
"I wanted to win this game but sometimes it is better to draw than lose. We played the game to win, though."
