Defeat shocks Sir Alex

Disappointing Defeat
“We have shown great hope in these young players. This result is a big shock to us all. I'm not going to give reasons, it was just a bad performance.”

- Sir Alex Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson admitted he was “shocked and flabbergasted” by United’s performance in the 2-0 defeat to Coventry City.

A young Reds team never really got going against Iain Dowie’s men and that disappointed the boss, who had given a number of the club’s emerging talents the chance to shine on the first-team stage in front of 75,000 fans.

“You take it on the chin,” he told MUTV. “That was an absolutely flabbergasting performance, I didn’t expect that. I’m not interested in giving reasons, it was just a bad performance.

“We have shown great hope in the young players. It’s a big shock to us all.”

The challenge now for the up-and-coming players is to get over the defeat. “They will look at it and want to prove themselves,” added the boss. “Coventry made it a cup tie, that was certainly an issue in the first half. They were first to every ball and maybe some of our players were not used to that kind of cup football.

“And it was typical of cup football, after a great save from their goalkeeper, they go up the other end and kill the game.”

However, despite his clear disappointment in the display, the manager does not regret his policy of giving eight players their first starts of the season so far.

“You have got to do that [give young players chances],” he said. “It wasn’t a surprise to look at the team tonight and see that we had made changes. These players have to have games.

"We hoped to get some of them games recently, but we’ve not been able to do it because I’ve had to keep the likes of Gerard Pique, Chris Eagles and Danny Simpson in the first-team squad [as cover for injuries], which means they are not getting any football. That was a problem. But this was a shock for us tonight.”