Furious Fergie defends ref rant

ALEX FERGUSON maintains he feels “aggrieved” at the performance of referee Mark Clattenburg at Bolton on Saturday.

As expected, Ferguson has been charged by the Football Association with “using abusive and insulting words towards an official” following his half-time altercation with Clattenburg, which resulted in his dismissal to the stands for the second-half of Manchester United’s 1-0 defeat.

Ferguson was upset that Clattenburg failed to protect his players against what he claimed were “over-aggressive” tactics from Gary Megson’s side, with Kevin Davies in particular irritating the Scot by meting out some rough treatment on full-back Patrice Evra.

The French defender felt one first-half tackle from Davies should have resulted in Clattenburg red-carding the striker and Ferguson waited for the official at half-time to “tell him exactly what I thought”.

“Some referees don’t like the truth,” added Ferguson after the game.

The Scot must have known the FA disciplinary chiefs were likely to take action once they examined Clattenburg’s version of events and he now has until December 11 to respond.

Ironically, earlier this month, Ferguson claimed Clattenburg was one of the Premier League’s best referees, although he has not brought them much luck this season, taking charge of the defeats at Manchester City and Bolton.

Meanwhile, Ferguson is targeting a Champions League win over Sporting Lisbon tonight to give Manchester United a smooth run to their Barclays Premier League crunch with Liverpool.

Having seen his side fall three points adrift of Arsenal, who also have a game in hand, Ferguson knows United cannot afford to make any more mistakes in the foreseeable future.

While home games against Fulham next Monday and Derby immediately afterwards should allow the Red Devils to recover the winning habit, the trip to Anfield on December 16 now takes on huge significance.

Although Ferguson still expects Liverpool to qualify for the latter stages of Europe’s major competition, the Scot knows it will require two big wins over Porto and Marseille to get there.

In contrast, his own side are already through and if they beat Sporting tomorrow will confirm top spot in Group F, rendering their trip to AS Roma, immediately before the Liverpool showdown, meaningless.

“The Liverpool game is one thing we have looked at,” admitted Ferguson.

“We know Sporting Lisbon need to get a result tomorrow as well which is why I am not playing too many younger players.

Any arguments over United playing fair by the remainder of the teams in their group can be ended by a home win as Sporting would be unable to catch Roma in second, no matter how the Italians fare against whipping boys Dynamo Kiev.

With an impressive record of just one defeat on home soil in 32 Champions League outings and seven wins and a draw in eight appearances at Old Trafford against Portuguese opposition, United will fancy their chances.