Strachan happy going down to United

Southampton manager Gordon Strachan claimed he was happy with his side’s performance despite seeing them go down to their second consecutive Barclaycard Premiership home defeat against Manchester United at St Mary’s today.

The Saints provided United with plenty of cause for concern – especially in the first half – but were ultimately undone by two goals in the space of seven minutes from Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ryan Giggs.

But Strachan was satisfied with his troops’ display, although their previously unbeaten home record this season is now a distant memory after today’s result on the back of defeat by Liverpool a fortnight ago.

Strachan said: “I was pleased with the first half – it went according to plan apart from the two goals.

“We’ve done well in the first half and for the first 15 minutes of the second half, we’ve done well again.

“And then all the energy we’d used to try and get the performance we did get for an hour was sapped out of us at the end.

“We were struggling at the end and they were comfortable winners for the last half-hour.”

Van Nistelrooy put United ahead after 15 minutes when he thumped home from six yards after being fed by Gary Neville.

Seven minutes later, Giggs doubled his side’s lead when he benefited from a Juan Sebastian Veron dummy and was given two chances to score after his first shot cannoned back off Claus Lundekvam.

At the second time of asking, the Welshman coolly slotted the ball past Saints goalkeeper Anti Niemi from the edge of the penalty area and United’s victory was never in doubt from that point onwards – although they were lucky that referee Phil Dowd decided not to award the home side a penalty when Roy Keane tripped Jo Tessem right in front of goal just before the interval.

Strachan put that decision down to bad luck, refusing to criticise Dowd.

“I’ve got nothing to say about him,” claimed the Scotsman.

“I’ve seen it (the penalty) and he’s come in behind him so that gave them a wee bit of luck, but the good thing about that was for the next 10 minutes we got everything, but we didn’t use our opportunities very well.

“I think one goal would have pepped them up a bit, but they were still there at the end plugging away, so fair play to them.

“I must admit for the first hour I thought the players put a far better showing in than they did against Liverpool.

“The first goal was a bit of a comedy really and the second one was a bit unlucky because Ryan had a shot and it rebounded right back to him.”

Alex Ferguson’s side managed to keep a clean sheet away from home in the Premiership for the first time this season.

But, the game will also be remembered for featuring four goalkeepers as Fabien Barthez, who saved excellently from Fabrice Fernandes in the fifth minute had to be replaced by Roy Carroll just before the break after landing awkwardly on his hip when he came to collect a cross.

And in the closing stages, Niemi was replaced by Paul Jones after saving bravely at the feet of van Nistelrooy, although Strachan was hoping the Finn’s injury was not serious.

He added: “Hopefully it’s just a bad kick that he’s got, but we’ll know more later on.”