Ferguson Brands Torres A Cheat, Roy Ignores

Alex Ferguson has
accused Liverpool striker
Fernando Torres of trying to get
John O'Shea dismissed during
Manchester United's 3-2 victory
over their bitter north-west rivals
on Sunday.
O'Shea escaped with a caution
when he hauled down Torres on
the edge of the United area as
the visitors chased a second-half
equaliser, but Ferguson
effectively dismissed the
Spaniard as a cheat when
questioned about the incident
after the match.
"I have watched it again.
Fernando Torres made a meal of
it, an absolute meal of it. There is
no doubt he tried to get the
player sent off," Ferguson said.
His remarks were in sharp
contrast to the measured
response of his Liverpool
counterpart.
"I prefer to talk about the game
and talk about issues that
interest me," declared Roy
Hodgson. "Sir Alex is entitled to
any opinion he wants to have
but I'm not going to come here
and say I agree or disagree.
"I thought the referee refereed
the game very well and I have a
very ambivalent attitude to those
type of things. I am not a great
lover of red cards for petty
offences. Alex is a lot closer to it
where he sits but my first
thought when it happened was
'this is a foul' but I didn't think
he should have been sent off.
"My staff around me jumped
about saying he should have
been sent off but I took a much
calmer attitude towards it."
Ferguson glossed over the
defensive frailties his side
showed for the third league
match running, after conceding
late goals in draws at Fulham and
Everton, to claim United should
have been out of sight before
Liverpool launched their
comeback.
"From thinking to myself 'it's
going to be 10' we ended up at
2-2," said the Scot. "It was a
travesty of a scoreline then - but
a great result at the end."
Hodgson again disagreed,
saying: "I thought United played
well but to undermine our
performance is a little bit harsh."