United boss hails ‘difficult’ Potters

Stoke City 1-1 Manchester United

By Zain Alvi | 25th September 2011

United boss hails 'difficult' Potters | read this item

Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted that his Manchester United side are completely comfortable with dropping points at Stoke City given the challenging circumstances.

United received a massive setback leading into the match at Britannia Stadium when in-form striker Wayne Rooney joined the club’s growing injury list and losing Javier Hernandez early in the game did not help either.

Nevertheless, Nani handed the Red Devils a slender 1-0 advantage in the first half, alleviating any apprehensions that the champions will struggle against Tony Pulis’ gritty side.

At the beginning of the second half, though, Stoke got their equalizer as Peter Crouch converted from a corner to make it 1-1, a score that would go on to stand at the full-time whistle.

While talk of United’s perfect start of the season coming to an end cannot be perceived as a positive, they still remain top of the table on goal difference and Fergie insists that he is content with the way his men fought away from home.

“I was pleased with the performance from the lads – they battled really hard and played like real champions,” Sir Alex stated in an interview with MUTV.

He added: “In terms of the attacking part we showed some good play and maybe should have scored more. We’ve always done well here, but all the changes we had to make today (due to unexpected injuries) maybe just unsettled us a bit for parts of the game.

“A draw is probably a fair result. It’s a difficult place to come to.”

Although Crouch’s second career goal against United brought the entire ground to its feet and justified Pulis’ decision to pursue his services strongly throughout the summer, Ferguson claims that he always knew that a set-piece would be the most likely source of a goal from the home side.

“If Stoke were going to score, it was probably going to be from a set-piece. They’ve got some big lads in their team and they do keep you under pressure that way,” he explained.

United will next be in action when they welcome FC Basel to Old Trafford on Tuesday in the UEFA Champions League, another competition that they started with a 1-1 draw against Benfica.

Stoke, meanwhile, will host Turkish outfit Besiktas in the Europa League on Thursday.

Reader Comments

The below views are those of our readers and do not reflect the opinions of Premiership Talk or its employees.

Latest Headlines

NewsNow

Football News 24/7

Translate

Follow Premiership Talk