MATCH REACTIONS

“It was a 50-50 ball and Scholesy has got there just before
and it was a penalty, we accept that. That should be
sufficient but it's just this stupid ruling which ruins the
game as a spectacle. We are punished three times - they
score from the penalty, we go down to 10 men and worst of
all Maik's suspended against Aston Villa in a couple of
weeks' time.

“There's no common sense, the referee couldn't wait to get
the card out of his pocket and with the rules he has to do
it and the game's absolutely ruined. The referees have to
obey the letter of the law otherwise they get marked down
and unless we address that situation we are always going to
be talking about refereeing incidents. The referee couldn't
have showed common sense otherwise he would have been marked
down by the referees assessors and wouldn't have refereed
next week - and that could have cost him £785 or however
much they earn.

“That was the turning point. It's hard enough coming here
with 11 men let alone playing with 10, and up until then we
had done well and I don't think Maik had had to make a save.
We needed a break after that. Jamie Clapham had a chance
just after half-time but unfortunately he missed it and
after that it was backs against the wall.”

Sir Alex Ferguson:

“We took a bit of time to get the opening goal. It was a bit
unfortunate for the Birmingham goalkeeper Taylor because he
had to go for it, but the mandate for referees is that he
was the last man and he brought Scholesy down.

“We just found it difficult to get through, we made one or
two chances but in these situations you just have to keep
your patience. They started the second half well and got
about us but Tim Howard made a good save - but once we got
the momentum going again Scholesy settled us down and Ryan
Giggs got the third goal with a good pass from Diego
Forlan.”