Ferguson defends red-carded Ronaldo

ALEX FERGUSON leapt to the defence of Cristiano Ronaldo after the Manchester United forward was controversially sent off during his side’s derby victory at Eastlands.

Wayne Rooney’s first half goal was enough to secure a hard-fought win for United and enable them to close the gap on Premier League leaders Chelsea and Liverpool to five points.

Rooney will take the headlines for his 100th club goal, but Ronaldo’s dismissal in the 68th minute by referee Howard Webb was also a talking point.

Ronaldo, who had been booked nine minutes earlier for clattering into Shaun Wright-Phillips, picked-up his second yellow card when he strangely handled a corner from Rooney.

Webb was left with no choice but to dismiss Ronaldo, who had earlier clapped the Yorkshire official sarcastically after being shown his first caution.

Ferguson praised the defensive spirit of his side and insisted Ronaldo’s dismissal had been an innocent mistake, claiming the Portugal international had handled the ball because he thought the referee’s whistle had been blown.

“I have seen the incident again on television and he’s tried to protect his face from the ball hitting it,” he said.

“He thought he had heard a whistle. But I’m not going to go into referees or the decision. Sometimes you have to overcome such adversity and that is what we did. I thought we were excellent, particularly in the first half. Manchester City came back at us in the second half but we showed great character and resilience, especially after Cristiano’s sending off. I don’t think Manchester City caused us too many problems.”

City manager Mark Hughes insisted Webb had no choice but to send off Ronaldo and also revealed Robinho had been forced to have a painkilling injection before kick off to enable him to play.

Hughes said: “He hasn’t trained all week so it was no surprise that he looked a little off the pace. He had to have an injection so he could play.

“I think we showed Manchester United too much respect in the first half. We lacked the energy has our play has had in recent weeks and this might be a consequence of us having had a hard week.

“United were just that little bit quicker to the ball. We had to force the issue in the second half but I think the sending off didn’t help us as much as people thought it would. United got two banks of four across the pitch and they were very hard to break down.

“Good teams find a way to win and that’s what United did.

The visitors’ victory suggested it will be some time before City, who have made no attempt to dumb down their ambitions since their high-profile takeover in August, overtake their much loathed rivals.

“That’s not an issue,” said Ferguson. “We didn’t have to prove anything here today,” he said.

“We needed three points today. We are behind Liverpool and Chelsea. We are chasing them and we needed to win the game today to get ourselves near them.

“We have had a significant result today and I hope it makes a difference.”