Ferguson demands tightening

Sir Alex Ferguson wants an end to conceding soft goals as Manchester United seek to keep up with the early title pace.

United boss eyes clean sheets from his free-scoring side

Sir Alex Ferguson wants an end to conceding soft goals as Manchester United seek to keep up with the early title pace. The Red Devils entertain Wigan on Saturday looking to record their third successive Premier League victory. Yet they do so only after being given two massive scares by Fulham and Southampton, who both came close to snatching points off Ferguson's team before United ran out 3-2 winners. While Ferguson is delighted with a six-goal haul from those two games immediately before the international break, he knows such a prolific return cannot be relied upon.

Soft goals

"We are losing soft goals at the moment," he said. "Do we have to score three in every game to win? I don't want to go down that road. "We are going to address it, as we did last year, because defending is every bit as important as the goals we are scoring. "There are goals in our team, there is no question about that. But the other end needs balancing out."