MANCHESTER, England (AFP) - Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson launched a blistering attack on referee Graham Poll after seeing Alan Smith sent off and his side denied two clear-cut penalties in a dismal 0-0 draw against Manchester City at Old Trafford.
FIFA official Poll dismissed United appeals for two penalties inside the opening five minutes following fouls by Sylvain Distin and Antoine Sibierski on Mikael Silvestre and Louis Saha respectively.
Having beaten Arsenal recently following a controversial penalty awarded by referee Mike Riley, the United manager claimed that his team are now being singled out for rough treatment by officials.
Ferguson said: "I've seen the penalty incidents again and they were both clear penalties, there is no dispute about that.
"But we are being penalised for getting a penalty against Arsenal and we simply aren't allowed to get them. We are suffering for that. Somebody would have had to gone at one of the players with an axe for us to get a penalty!
"It would have been a different story if we had got those penalties so early in the game, but the referee was never going to give us a penalty today.
"And as for the sending off, Alan Smith made two tackles all day, so to get sent off for two bookings is utterly ridiculous."
With United now trailing league leaders Chelsea by 11 points, Ferguson admitted that his team are all but out of the title race.
He said: "We are not good enough to win the championship on that display.
"We are doing nine-tenths of things right, but the important thing of scoring isn't being done. We have ended up dropping two points that we shouldn't have dropped. One win in five games isn't championship form.
"These things happen when things aren't going your way. Our possession rate was high, but they never had a chance."
City manager Kevin Keegan played a defensive 4-5-1 formation in an effort to stifle United's attacking instincts and the former England coach admitted he had no qualms about his team's negative approach.
Keegan said: "I don't usually ask the players to play that kind of way, but we had no other option but to play as we did today.
"I had lots of players unavailable and that was the best system for us, but why should we come to Old Trafford and make it easy for Manchester United?
"We came here and stood up to them. Yes, we rode our luck a little bit at times, but we had chances late on and only a bit of quality let us down there. Perhaps the players had used all their energy by that stage, though.
"This result means that our fans can walk round the city with their heads held high. We have got a point at Old Trafford and we still have them to play at home yet, where we have beaten them twice in the last couple of seasons.
"I just want people out there to know that there is another club in Manchester other than United because for a few years, some people thought there was only one team in Manchester."
Keegan, meanwhile, refused to condemn substitute Robbie Fowler for making a provocative gesture to the United supporters while warming up on the touchline.
He said: "Robbie gets a lot of stick when he comes here, but that is because he has played for the three teams that they don't like at Old Trafford in Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester City.
"I didn't see it because I have this habit of watching the game."
11/08/2004 - 05:53 GMT - AFP