Fergie: We're not good enough

Frustrated Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has left his misfiring strikeforce in no doubt there are no excuses for their current pitiful form.

The Red Devils drew yet another blank in the Manchester derby yesterday, their third in four Barclays Premiership matches, letting City escape with a goalless draw that leaves United a massive 11 points adrift of league leaders Chelsea.

With Ryan Giggs and Louis Saha blowing golden chances to grab a winner and both Saha and sent-off Alan Smith seeing efforts cleared off the line, Ferguson's side were unable to add to a dismal 11-goal tally which leaves them fourth bottom of the top flight scoring charts.

"We can't accept the chances we are missing," grumbled the United chief, who gave Smith and Saha the striking berths as Ruud van Nistelrooy served the final game of his three-match domestic ban.

"We had two great ones and we did not even hit the target. There is no excuse for that.

"The form we are showing is not good enough to win the championship. Nine parts of our game are right but it is the 10th, which is so important, that is not being done. The goalscoring part of our game is not giving us any encouragement.

"The belief is good and we pounded away but we have still dropped another two points and there is no way that should have happened."

Ferguson said he would look again at Smith's dismissal before making a firm judgement, although when he does so, the Scot will probably reflect the striker's 10th dismissal of a stormy career was justified even though his tackles on Paul Bosvelt and Richard Dunne represented his only two fouls of the day.

What Ferguson did not need TV replays for were the fouls by Sylvain Distin and Antoine Sibierski on Mikael Silvestre and Saha early in the game which he felt were obvious penalties, only for referee Graham Poll to deny the hosts each time.

And that, the United boss insisted, is a direct result of the controversy which surrounded Mike Riley's decision to award a spot-kick against Arsenal in their previous home game a fortnight ago.

"We have been penalised for our victory against Arsenal," said Ferguson.
"There were two certain penalties for us but clearly we are not going to get one now.

"We are suffering for what happened in the Arsenal game, which is ridiculous."
Ferguson must now decide how many of the players who struggled yesterday should turn out in the Carling Cup against Crystal Palace on Sunday, whereas for opposite number Kevin Keegan, the task is to get his inconsistent team performing at the same level every week.

It was hard to believe the City side that performed so well at Old Trafford was the same one that disintegrated in the second half against Norwich last Monday.

With Distin and Richard Dunne rock solid in defence and Bosvelt producing probably his best performance in a Blues shirt, Keegan was able to argue with some conviction that his team deserved a point, even if the hosts enjoyed the vast majority of possession.

"With the players we had it was a terrific result," said the former England coach, who was without five senior players through injury and had Stephen Jordan and Willo Flood making only their second Premiership starts.

"We had a bit of luck but in the end I thought Manchester United ran out of ideas.

"I don't care what people say about the way we played. Years ago, I used to come here and try to beat Manchester United by playing football. I would do that again if I believed it was the right way.

"But with the injuries we had, I felt the best plan was to frustrate them - and it worked. The only disappointing aspect about the performance was that when we did get a chance late on, the players had run so much they did not have enough energy to take it."