Ferguson:
"They foul all the time.
"It says a bit about how they play. I could not honestly defend them. It was foul after foul."
"I have to say Rio had two fouls in the space of a minute, but their centre half Todd committed about ten fouls. Rio said he didn't touch him but I'll have to look at the video.
"I think our performance was terrific but mistakes at the back cost us.
"We dominated the first half but we were down 3-1 at the break. In fairness to the players they kept going and going.
"They were fouled and fouled and the referee has to be strong. Blackburn are very difficult to play against because the game is stopped all the time.
"They got those breaks, it was a great free kick by Morten Gamst Pedersen but no-one was following up to defend the rebound. We're 1-0 down and don't know why but that's football, it happens many a time. We immediately equalised then a schoolboy error at the back between Rio [Ferdinand] and Edwin van der Sar put us behind again.
"I think the penalty kick was very harsh. The ball was going nowhere, straight to van der Sar, and they got a soft penalty from the linesman. At 3-1 down it was very difficult at half time and Wayne [Rooney] had a chance to make it 3-2. Then they've gone up the park and made it 4-1 but we kept going at them and didn't deserve that.
"Maybe sometimes, in these games, the fate is with you. Particularly the second goal, it's just incredible to lose a goal like that, and the penalty kick was very harsh so we had a mountain to climb.
"The ref has got to add on six minutes' time, it could have been 26. It was ridiculous but a spectacle, seven goals, it's a United game."
Defending his decision to leave van Nistelrooy on the bench: "We've had a lot of games, 17 since the beginning of December.
"More games than anyone else I think.
"I want to rotate the best we can in terms of the pool we've got. We've got a game on Saturday, had the cup tie last Sunday. It's games all the time.
"I have to use the pool the best I can and Ruud, as we always expect, gave us a great threat straight away and scored two.
"It's one of these things. The great thing about our club is we always bounce back. We've got great desire to do it and in the game against Fulham on Saturday, that's what we'll do."
Hughes:
"It was a great evening of football and we’re almost ahead of ourselves now. We set targets that we think are attainable and this game has given us a chance to try and qualify for Europe.
"For us to get a first league double over United in 75 years is a fantastic achievement.
"We showed real desire and commitment and tapped into a great atmosphere. They were always going to throw everything at us in the last 15 minutes but we withstood that. To do a double over United for the first time in 75 years is fantastic.
"It's put us in a great position to qualify for Europe.
"Bentley's a young man with a great future. He should possibly have done that a week before negotiating his permanent move from Arsenal, though; he might have got himself a bit more money."
Of Ferdinand's tackle tackle on Savage: "It was a poor challenge on Robbie; he's got a badly gashed shin and was shaken up but hopefully he'll be OK."