FERGIE FUMING

“The first booking was ridiculous and going by that there
should have been four or five sent off. The referee made a
rod for his own back. The young boy made two tackles and he
was sent off. He is not that sort of player and he never has
been.

“I don't think they (Boro) made a chance in the whole match
and I don't think Tim Howard had a save to make. We started
the first half fantastically well and in fairness to
Middlesbrough they worked really hard and were tigerish to
get something out of it. I thought Mikael and Rio were
fantastic. The whole back four did well but they were
fantastic.”

“When you see Boro's record of the last few weeks their
goals against column is fantastic so we have done well to
get a result.”

Steve McClaren:

“We've just gone 11 unbeaten and we had to lose sometime. I
believe we've lost narrowly today to the champions elect so
there's no disgrace in that. I'm not a fool - everyone can
see at times that we just lack that cutting edge albeit
against two centre-backs who I felt were absolutely
outstanding.

“I was just questioning some of the decisions made in the
first half that were quite baffling. It was just about the
consistency of the decisions and I had a polite chat with
him about how it could be improved in the second half. It
was a niggly game and I said to the lads at half-time that
the important thing was because of the silly bookings in the
first half to finish with 11 men.”