Fergie upset with red card

Sir Alex Ferguson is hoping Cristiano Ronaldo will have his red card rescinded.

Ronaldo was sent off midway through the second half of the Manchester derby for a lunge on former United striker Andy Cole.

Bennett took his time before producing the red card, with Ronaldo making the tackle after being incensed at failing to be awarded a free kick of his own.

Red Devils boss Ferguson was unhappy with the decision and wants the official to have another look at the incident.

"The referee's decided it's a red card and I think he should look at it again really," Ferguson told MUTV.

"He's not touched the player, he's not got near him.

"I think he's really disappointed he never got a foul for the tackle on him, and it was a really bad tackle on him on the touchline. But no foul came from the referee and that's frustrated him."

United lost 3-1 to City in a game which saw debutant Patrice Evra withdrawn at half time - a decision which Ferguson explained.

He added: "At 2-0 down we wanted to make sure we didn't lose another goal. I think John O'Shea has more knowledge of derby games than Patrice, so that was maybe a bit of a gamble.

"That's why I played Mikael Silvestre, being a French player, trying to help Patrice. He did his job okay, I've no complaints. I don't think he was responsible for anything. But basically the defending out there was poor."

The defeat came on the back of a lengthy unbeaten run in The Premiership and Ferguson was unhappy with the lack of quality on show from his players.

"We've been in very good form, but in fairness we didn't play well enough in the first half.

"We gave the ball away too much and our last-third play wasn't good enough. The crosses into the box were easy to deal with and we should be doing better than that."