Views From The Broadsheets

Last updated : 26 November 2007 By Ed

The Guardian

Gary Megson was desperately trying to avoid saying anything critical of his "mate" but the Bolton Wanderers manager had a duty to defend his team from Sir Alex Ferguson's allegations that they had tried to kick Manchester United out of the game.

What, he asked, did Ferguson expect in a local derby, facing the Premier League's third-from-bottom team in the kind of weather Thor himself might have invoked? "We have to compete and I am not going to criticise them for competing," he argued. "I've got nothing to apologise for."

Ferguson's complaint was that the Bolton tactics were, at best, primitive and, at worst, dangerous. Others would argue that the reasons for United's poorest performance of 2007 stemmed from their inability to pass the ball with the usual zip, the debilitating effects of being without Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, the erratic finishing of Carlos Tevez and, in the absence of the injured Nemanja Vidic, Gerard Piqué making a pig's ear of some basic defending before Nicolas Anelka turned in the winning goal for Bolton.

Contrary to what has been said, it had nothing to do with Kevin Davies roughing up Patrice Evra early on or with the referee, Mark Clattenburg, not giving United the "protection" Ferguson wanted.

Ferguson accused Clattenburg of allowing the opening 45 minutes to become a "shambles". His assistant, Carlos Queiroz, called it "intimidation football" and Ferguson made the point so forcibly at half-time that he was required to watch the rest of the match from the stands and is likely to get a Football Association charge this week.

"It was a big fight," said Evra.

"I received more tackles in one game than I've had in my entire life. It was the same last year, too. [Kevin] Davies kicked me then as well and I said to him, 'Why did you do that?' He said, 'Because I don't like you.' I didn't understand it. And today he did it again. His tackle should have been a red card [Clattenburg showed a yellow]. It's bizarre. I spoke to the referee and I said, 'You can't play football like that; this is not a football game.' When I play football I do it to play the ball, not to kick somebody."

Perhaps unsurprisingly an entirely different assessment was put forward by the alleged perpetrators. "I thought we were fantastic," said Andy O'Brien, the Bolton centre-half. "We put them under pressure, we battled and we made it difficult for them. I don't understand what the problem is.

"We were right at them from the start but, in all honesty, I don't think there was a malicious tackle in the whole game. There were some physical challenges but that is what you have to do. Evra, for example, gave as good as he got. But I don't think there was one malicious, nasty challenge."

There is nothing new, of course, about Ferguson telling his United players that, to succeed, they will have to do it the hard way. The Scot lets them think everyone is against them because, ultimately, he thinks it brings the players closer together. It is part of the Ferguson magic, you could say.

Yet there will be United supporters who can recall Arsène Wenger making the same complaints about United and the disdain with which it was greeted at Old Trafford. They will remember the way they used to sneer when José Antonio Reyes would whine about being singled out.

Then they will look at what Evra had to say and the fact that Piqué, Tevez and Louis Saha wore woolly gloves to protect them from the cold. And as supporters of a team that has nurtured granite-jawed heroes such as Bryan Robson, Mark Hughes and Roy Keane, they will not appreciate the irony.

The Times

A shambles, Sir Alex Ferguson called it. He was talking about the first half, which he claimed Bolton Wanderers, with the referee's help, turned into a kicking match, but from Manchester United's point of view he might have been talking about the whole afternoon - an undignified affair summed up by the sight of Ferguson banished to the stands and Edwin van der Sar anxiously wrestling the ball from Lofty the Lion, the Bolton mascot, as the clock ticked down.

There were some mitigating factors. Without Nemanja Vidic, their defence had a soft centre that was always likely to be exposed at some point by a Bolton side who, under Gary Megson, threaten to be as uncompromising as they were when Sam Allardyce was the manager at the Reebok Stadium. Without Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney, United lacked their usual attacking flair; both of their league defeats so far this season have come when their two outstanding young forwards have been missing through either injury or suspension.

United should still have had enough in their armoury to win - their manager certainly felt so - but they were knocked out of their stride by a team who, according to Ferguson, were "over-physical" in their approach. Ferguson confronted Mark Clattenburg in the tunnel at half-time to tell him as much, throwing in a few choice words as he jabbed his finger at the referee, and was sent to watch the second period from the stands, which will become a familiar vantage point if, as expected, he receives a three-match touchline ban from the FA. Brave man, Clattenburg, but Ferguson saw the referee's reaction as cowardice. "Some referees don't like the truth," the United manager said.

Take the Davies-Evra spat out of the equation - and the United player was not entirely innocent, even if he was more sinned against than sinner - and there was little to merit the reference from Carlos Queiroz, the United assistant manager, to "football of intimidation." Ferguson and Queiroz, though, feel that their players are subjected to too many wild challenges and that, sooner or later, someone is going to get hurt.

They were poor throughout and, though they improved after the introduction of Anderson in the second half, they would have been flattered by a point had Carlos Tévez not miscued when picked out by Evra in the six-yard area with 18 minutes remaining. With Louis Saha lacklustre, it was another France striker, Nicolas Anelka, who won the day, turning sharply to shoot past Van der Sar in the eleventh minute after Gerard Piqué, Vidic's young stand-in, misjudged the flight of Iván Campo's free kick.

Thereafter Bolton had their backs against the wall, but, as Megson pointed out, Jussi Jaaskelainen, his goal-keeper, had "only one real save to make". That speaks volumes for the way in which Megson has galvanised Bolton since taking over a month ago.

The Indie

It was easy for the football nation to be told, as they were at least by implication by a touted head coach for England, Alan Shearer, that Sir Alex Ferguson had donned his black hat again when complaining so strenuously to referee Mark Clattenburg about the methods adopted by Bolton that he was packed off to the stand. Easy to pop up the Fergie caricature, perhaps, but apparently rather more difficult to draw the line between assiduous application and something that at times carried at least a whiff of assassination.

Where Ferguson undoubtedly had a point - and it was one which had the poison removed by his admission that his team at no point deserved to win - was that if you invest in the finest talent, if you always attempt to play the kind of game that only Croatia exhibited in that vital match, a little bit more official protection is not asking too much. Bolton's Kevin Davies, for example, did more than enough for a red card in a series of cynical assaults on Patrice Evra.

Maybe Evra will take comfort from the fact that indeed it isn't personal - and that's more or less official. Megson also said: "I believe in getting good players organised and having a right good go."

No question about Bolton being well organised, and still less about them having a good go. Evra took most of the flak, but Carlos Tevez, who promised a lot more than he achieved, Louis Saha and Nani all received serious discouragement for any light-hearted indulgence in their finest skills from Abdoulaye Meite, Ivan Campo and El Hadji Diouf, all of whom might have found their names in the referee's book alongside their team-mates Kevin Nolan, Nicky Hunt and, inevitably, Davies.

It was only when United brought on the lively and skilful Anderson on the hour that Bolton were pushed on to their back feet. The industrious Tevez threw away a perfect chance to equalise when the buffeted but still tireless and biting Evra got to the line and turned in a perfectly measured cross. Owen Hargreaves, diligent but ultimately uninspired, drove a shot just over the bar, but from such as Ryan Giggs, Saha and Michael Carrick there was next to nothing in the way of genuine penetration.

It was certainly not a day for Ferguson to invite too close an interrogation on his recent claim that he now boasts his best-ever squad. Denied Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and the relentless Vidic, United look thin to the point of insubstantial - certainly nothing like as authoritative as a Chelsea without such as John Terry and Joe Cole when they, a few weeks ago down the road, simply swatted Wigan.

Still, United's blip - for such it was, claimed Ferguson at the end of a run of nine straight Premier League victories - certainly signalled some regained status for the previously embattled Wanderers. Megson insisted that, despite the United manager's rage, he had nothing for which to apologise.