Ferguson angry at Rooney red card

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson accepted his side deserved to lose at Fulham but hit out at the decision to send off Wayne Rooney.

With United trailing 2-0, referee Phil Dowd showed Rooney a second yellow card for throwing the ball in frustration.

"The ball was thrown to where the free-kick was being taken - did it hit the referee? No," Ferguson told MUTV.

"But there's no point talking about the referee - we didn't play well enough in the first half and that's why we lost."

United's lead will be cut to one point if Liverpool defeat Aston Villa on Sunday after the champions suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time in 147 games.

Paul Scholes was sent off in the first half for handling Bobby Zamora's header on the line, with Danny Murphy scoring the penalty to give Fulham a deserved lead. "In the first half we never got started," admitted Ferguson.

"They were lively and got stuck in and we respect that - they lost 4-0 to us a couple of weeks ago."

United were much-improved after the break but after Mark Schwarzer kept them at bay with a string of excellent saves, Zoltan Gera struck on the break for Fulham.

Shortly after, Rooney, on as a half-time substitute, saw red for allowing his frustration to get the better of him, throwing the ball angrily after Dowd ordered a free-kick to be taken again.