Wally Downes, the Reading assistant manager, has denied he was the recipient of Sir Alex Ferguson's aggressive gesture after Cristiano Ronaldo scored at the Madejski Stadium on Saturday.

"It certainly wasn't me,' Downes revealed. 'I get on well with him and there were no problems at all. We were all sharing a bottle of wine afterwards." Ferguson faces an FA probe after he was seen on television making the aggressive arm gesture after United's second goal.

Downes, nephew of former world middleweight boxing champion Terry Downes, got involved in a touchline row with the then Sheffield United manager Neil Warnock last season.