United to appeal Fletcher red card

Manchester United are set to appeal against the second-half dismissal of Darren Fletcher which soured their win at the Riverside Stadium.

Fletcher was shown the red card by referee Matt Messias for a second bookable offence after hauling down Bolo Zenden.

The United youngster had been yellow-carded four minutes before half-time by Messias who incurred boss Alex Ferguson’s wrath afterwards.

The visitors were forced to hang on for the win which sent them four points clear at the top of the Barclaycard Premiership thanks to Quinton Fortune’s 14th minute strike which deflected home off Danny Mills.

Ferguson said: “When Darren was sent off it made it more difficult for us.

“He is a 19-year-old lad and it was ridiculous. I think the crowd got to him (the referee). We will have to have a look at the video but there is plenty of evidence for an appeal,” Ferguson told MUTV.

The United boss singled out central defenders Rio Ferdinand and Mikael Silvestre for special praise after the hard-fought win.

Although Middlesbrough enjoyed most of the second-half possession they failed to trouble goalkeeper Tim Howard and drew a blank for their fifth consecutive home game.

Ferguson added: “I thought Mikael and Rio were fantastic. The whole back four did well but they were fantastic.”

Middlesbrough boss Steve McClaren admitted his side afforded United too much space early on and they paid through Fortune’s fortuitous strike.

The South African cut in from the left flank and hit a shot which caught Mills into the chest and wrong-footed Boro goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Boro fought valiantly with their defence – marshalled superbly by Ugo Ehiogu making his comeback after a knee injury – snuffing out the threat of the recalled Ruud van Nistelrooy and Paul Scholes.

But up front they were dismal again and reliant on Zenden’s set-pieces to get back into the match.

McClaren was also displeased with the referee’s performance and in particular a fractious moment at the end of the first half when Roy Keane’s challenge on Juninho went unpunished only for George Boateng to be booked seconds later for a similar tackle on Scholes.

McClaren conceded that he confronted the referee at half-time over decisions he described as “baffling”.

McClaren added: “It was just about the consistency of the decisions and I had a polite chat with him about how it could be improved in the second half.”

For all Boro’s possession in the second half it was United who came closest to extending their lead in the 54th minute.

Scholes whacked a rising right-foot volley which Schwarzer brilliantly tipped onto his bar.

And Boro’s only half-chances fell to the out-of-sorts Michael Ricketts who twice headed comfortably wide.

The final whistle brought to an end Boro’s 11-match unbeaten run but McClaren tried to be positive.

He said: “We have just gone 11 unbeaten and we had to lose sometime. I believe we have lost narrowly to the champions elect so there is no disgrace in that.

“I’m not a fool – everyone can see at times that we just lack that cutting edge albeit against two centre backs who I felt were absolutely outstanding.”