Ferguson slams referee over Chelsea goal after Community Shield loss

Aug 9, 2009, 18:20 GMT

London - Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson slammed referee Chris Foy for his handling of the Community Shield after his side were beaten 4-1 on penalties by Chelsea at Wembley on Sunday.

The match finished 2-2 after normal time, thanks to a late United equalizer by Wayne Rooney.

But Ferguson was incensed that Foy allowed Chelsea's second goal, by Frank Lampard, after Michael Ballack had appeared to body-check Patrice Evra at the other end.

'That incident cost us the game,' Ferguson said. 'The referee saw the foul. 'He (Ballack) clearly elbowed him in the face.

'I'm disappointed because the ref stopped the game twice before that for fouls, when Ballack was lying on his back.'

Nevertheless, Ferguson was generally pleased with his team's display in their first competitive outing since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.

'Our commitment was there,' he said. 'The equalizer was a poor goal, we should have defended better. The second goal shouldn't have been allowed but once they got the goal I thought they were in control so it was good to equalize.'

Lampard said the United players should have carried on playing when Evra went down, rather than thinking the whistle should have been blown.

'Anyone should look at the rules,' he said. 'It's up to the referee to stop it but Man United just stopped when their man was down.

'It's in the rules, when the referee stops it he stops it. We carried on and I'm sure United would have done the same in that position.'

Lampard was delighted to get an early win over the champions, saying: 'This is sweet. It feels nice to make a winning start to the season.'

'After that last goal we could have been on a downer but we didn't let out heads drop.'