Fergie satisfied with scoreline

Sir Alex Ferguson admitted he was pleased with the scoreline after Manchester United booked their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 3-0 win at Southampton.

United have struggled to turn chances into goals in recent weeks, but secured a comfortable victory over the Championship side courtesy of goals from Danny Welbeck, Darron Gibson and a Nani penalty.

"It's our best scoreline for quite a while," Ferguson told MUTV.

"We've been missing too many chances but at least we took a better percentage of them against Southampton.

"There's been a good spread of goals throughout the squad this season - that's 14 different players who have scored this season which is healthy."

Meanwhile, Ferguson felt sympathy towards the Championship strugglers after referee Mike Riley - who had already reduced them to ten men - awarded United a penalty for a handball off David McGoldrick's despite replays indicating the ball had struck the back of his head.

"I can't make up my mind about the penalty," he admitted.

"I know he put his arm up and that's obviously why the referee gave it, but it may have actually glanced off his head. I'm not really sure.

"I think the red card (for Matt Paterson) was fair. It was a bad challenge from the boy, very high.

"It would have been interesting to see how things might have turned out had the referee booked him in the first minute though after a late tackle on Jonny Evans - it may well have calmed him down."

Source: football.co.uk