Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admits his team made it very hard for themselves despite accounting for Portsmouth 2-0.

The Red Devils dominated the first half but only went into the break 1-0 up and when Pompey came out firing in the second half, it seemed that they may have let their chances slip.

"We made it hard for ourselves," Ferguson told Sky Sports.

"Obviously, our first-half performance was absolutely fantastic and we should have been five, six goals ahead.

"We missed a lot of good chances and you only encourage your opponents in that situation and that's what we did.

"In the second-half they got to the by-line twice and you start thinking to yourself, 'we're going to throw this away'.

"Fortunately, Michael Carrick came on and scored the second goal which settled everyone down, but we made it really difficult for ourselves.

"You only need a second to lose a goal and you risk the game because you haven't taken the chances."