Manchester United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson has been forced to speak out in defence of player Cristiano Ronaldo after the much hyped Derby match, in which he recevied a red card for deliberately handballing.

Despite, Ferguson’s protestations, it might lead some to wonder whether Ronaldo is up to the task of pushing United forward for a title win given his individualistic style and failure to put side before self everytime as per Billy Bremner.

After seeing the replays, Ferguson, however claims both that Ronaldo was shielding himself (although presumably heading a ball that is coming towards your head is more conventional than a deliberate handball) and that he thought he heard the referee’s whistle:

“I’ve seen it again and he was trying to protect himself from the ball hitting his face,”

“He may have got a little shove as well.

“He thought he’d heard the referee’s whistle. But I’m not going to get into the refereeing, we’d be here all day. Sometimes you have to overcome things and we’ve done that. With 10 men we proved ourselves.”

Mark Hughes, City’s manager, didn’t share Ferguson’s view:

“I don’t know what reason Ronaldo will give for handling the ball, but if it was going to hit him in the face, why didn’t he head it?”

Despite the odd incident, Rooney came through for United, giving them a 1-0 victory.

Source: Telegraph