Fergie - Cottagers had a claim

Sir Alex Ferguson felt Fulham had a strong penalty claim in Manchester United's 1-0 win at Old Trafford on Monday. 

Wayne Rooney's first-half goal settled the contest, but refereeMichael Oliver had a big decision to make late on.Danny Murphy went down in the penalty area after being caught by Michael Carrick, however, Oliver was having none of it.United could have won a penalty when Patrice Evra's cross hit Stephen Kelly and Ferguson believes Oliver was thinking of the incident when he failed to give Fulham a spot-kick

"I think they had a claim, no doubt. Certainly Michael Carrick has caught Danny Murphy's heel as he came back."
Sir Alex FergusonQuotes of the week

"I think they had a claim, no doubt," he told Sky Sports.

"I think maybe the referee's been a bit lenient when we had a claim for a penalty kick in the first half. It was a clear handball. It was maybe close to the attacker, but it was a claim.

"Patrice Evra thought it was a stonewall penalty. He thought he handled it and was denied an opportunity, maybe (Oliver) thinking about that.

"Certainly Michael Carrick has caught Danny Murphy's heel as he came back."

The win was United's sixth consecutive successive success in England's top flight, a victory that moved the club three points clear of rivals Manchester City.

Fatigue

Ferguson accepts the performance was not quite up to scratch and he had hoped his troops would see off the Cottagers in order to avoid any last-gasp equaliser.

"It's a result for us tonight. The three points was what we were after," he continued.

"I thought for an hour we played very well. Our passing was quick and precise.

"We made some decent opportunities, but you have to give credit to Fulham that was a really determined defensive performance by them.

"The problem is when you play teams who sit in your half the whole game they've always got something left. They had more left than we did in the last 15 minutes.

"A little bit of tiredness came into the game and we started giving the ball away. They capitalised on that and they had a lot of counter-attacks through it.

"I think that was really the disappointing thing for us, we never finished them off when we should have."

No injuries

David De Gea seemed to damage his wrist after punching the ball clear late on while Rio Ferdinandhad to be replaced by Chris Smalling due to stiffness in his back.However, Ferguson believes the pair will both be fine: "David's okay. Rio's a bit of stiffness. He's got that. From time to time he gets stiffness in his back."We brought Chris Smalling on as a safeguard. If he would have played it out he would probably have managed okay, but may not have been available for a couple of weeks."So I think we've done the right thing at the right time."