‘Ferguson said: 'We were disappointed; we put in a really good performance and defended particularly well.
'The goal was clearly a yard offside, and there is nothing you can do about that. There is no one you can blame for it.
'It's unfortunate that the linesman had a bad performance today. These things happen in football, and we are hamstrung with that. I think West Ham deserved their point at the end of the day - but they had to thank the linesman. We hope the breaks will turn our way. We played some excellent football, and the teamwork was terrific.'
Of van Nistelrooy's goal when the Dutch striker turned in at the near post after initially returning from an offside position, Ferguson added: 'If he's not interfering with play in the first attack he's not offside.'
Ferguson's opposite number Glenn Roeder was disappointed with the decision to allow van Nistelrooy's 11th goal of the season and diplomatically said: 'That's why it was 1-1 - I wouldn't argue with Alex. I spent the next hour asking the linesman on that decision, and he didn't have an answer. We are all humans, and if he's made an error it's a genuine error. He's not done it on purpose - none of us is a machine.'