Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says beating Stoke City earlier this season was decisive.

"We're at the time of the season where you expect the players to kick on," he said. "We've seen it over the years.

"The present group I've got seem to have a gear where they can find. For instance, when we went to Stoke it was lively pitch and we'd just got back from Japan but we scraped a result because we never gave in.

"It was an important marker to lay down and, having come back from the World Club Cup in Japan, we needed to win that game. Once we won that, we've gone on."