Manchester City boss Mark Hughes has no doubts Manchester United rival Sir Alex Ferguson is a sore loser.

Ahead of tomorrow's big derby, Sparky said: "You have to understand the top managers don't get beaten very often so sometimes they don't take it as well as other managers.

"You have to get used to getting beaten sometimes, myself included.

"When I was at Blackburn, we beat United 4-3. I think maybe Sir Alex was a bit critical of the approach of some of my players and he singled out Andy Todd, which I thought was unfair at the time and I said so afterwards."

Fergie was also dismissive this week of City's bid to challenge United.

Ahead of tomorrow's Manchester derby, Hughes added: "More questions will be asked of people about what we are doing here. Sometimes their responses will be considered, sometimes they will be a bit dismissive."