"I think it was a good performance," said Ferguson. We kept attacking play going and we dominated the game, but we would have liked a third goal to ease it. They scored and for a few minutes there was a bit of life in it, but we ran the clock down fairly well and had decent possession."
Ferguson heaped praise on Alan Smith:
"He has done great for us, he is a real handful for any defender and he was magnificent. He is similar to Mark Hughes when he was here. It was a sort of Mark Hughes goal, a replica. He's a terrific leader of the line, tough and resilient. Mark could score goals like Alan did today and that will endear him to the fans."
"We're stretched a bit in terms of numbers, but we have Ronaldo back now and hopefully his fitness is okay. It's a big week ahead, but it's big all the time here but if we keep hanging in there and producing football like we are at the moment, we will be OK."