BACKWARDS IN GOING FORWARDS

"The performances against Arsenal and Liverpool were fantastic but not in terms of football,"

"It was all about grit and staying together; being compact and defending well.

"But against Deportivo La Coruna last Wednesday there were signs that the class going forward again was back. Some of the link play between Scholesy and Ruud, Giggsy and Ole was fantastic. That was the most pleasing thing.

"Four or five weeks ago we were nowhere near that level going forward. It was a bit worrying. Defensively we have not been too bad all season apart from the odd blip but to start to show the signs that the real class going forward is back is great.

"In the past we have always gone and blown these teams away. We've known if we don't start right in these games after a European match then it can really drag on and the opposition get encouragement from it.

"The games against Arsenal and Liverpool would have been less meaningful if we'd dropped points against West Ham. It was a psychological boost to go top of the league for a while. From where we were five weeks ago we are in a great position now."

"We have gone nine matches unbeaten since the City game and we knew we were capable of a run like this," Neville added.

"We have shown we are capable of it in the past. Last season we lost six games at home and then after losing to West Ham we went 10 games on the trot without losing. Why we have to wait until a disappointment or a bad run before we kick ourselves into gear I don't know but we have kicked ourselves into gear again. Now we have to keep it going.

"After Sunderland on New Years' day that is when we have to be top of the league or very close to it with the run of games we have coming up."

How bad was the derby for them

"We were criticised at the time for not speaking, but how can
you say sorry to the fans in those circumstances? What does sorry mean?

"Any words we said were not going to be laughed at, but would be
unimportant. The only way we could respond was on the pitch and I think we
have done that in the last few weeks.

"To put it into perspective, at 27 I am not going to let a mistake
affect me the way it would have at the age of 21 - I wouldn't like to have
made that error at 21.

"It didn't lose us the championship, or the cup final or the European Cup
final. You just look at it as a mistake for a goal, even though it was one
of the most humiliating experiences you can have, against one of your big
rivals.

"It was a bad mistake on a big day, but I have to put it in perspective. It
was one goal in one game. There is no mistake recovery, and you have to get
on with it as quickly as possible. I was unfortunate I was injured pretty
quickly after that and my next game was Liverpool, so I had two or three
weeks to get over it and think about it.

"The defeat at City was a catalyst for all the criticism. Everything came from that day, and maybe that day it looked like we weren't committed and weren't trying. That was never the case.

He said: "When you are not playing well enough and not getting results,
people begin to question other things. Hunger and desire are words that I
have heard more often in the last three or four weeks than in the rest of my
lifetime at this club, and I don't believe it was ever down to that.

"It's down to getting little breaks, like stumbling upon the centre-half
partnership of Mikael Silvestre and Wes Brown at Basle. But it is a fine
line and we are only one game away from criticism again.