Sir Alex Ferguson agreed with referee Howard Webb in giving an early penalty for Liverpool's Daniel Agger's challenge on Dimitar Berbatov and Steven Gerrard's subsequent dismissal for a lunge on Michael Carrick. "It was a penalty," he argued, as Ryan Giggs converted for the winning goal.
"Dimitar says he was definitely clipped. The replay shows he slightly touched him but the momentum is enough to bring the player down.
"There is no reason for him to go down anyway. He is not that kind of player.
"He is on the by-line, he is in the penalty box. I think it was right.
"As for the sending off, there was no doubt.
"It was two-footed and he was off the ground.
"Steven Gerrard is not that type of player but it was a reckless challenge. I don't think he left the referee with any option."
As to the game in general the Scottish tactician added: "It is amazing it was only 1-0.
"But sometimes, when a team is down to 10 men, you get that kind of resilient attitude.
"We should have put it to bed in the second half and it could have been three or four.
"But anything can happen at 1-0. The FA Cup is riddled with it.
"Newcastle were reasonably comfortable against Stevenage yesterday, then someone shoots from 25 yards and it goes in off the defender's head. The whole game changes.
"Fortunately, we didn't do anything stupid today that would have caused us embarrassment."
