Ferguson 'shocked' by inept display

SOCCER:ALEX FERGUSON condemned his Manchester United players and admitted their performance had "shocked" him as Leeds United, of League One, produced one of the biggest recent surprises of the FA Cup by eliminating the 11-times winners at Old Trafford yesterday.

Jermaine Beckford's 19th-minute goal gave Leeds a deserved place in the fourth round, where their opponents will be Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane, while simultaneously consigning the Premier League champions to their first Cup defeat against lower-league opposition in the Ferguson era, and their first third-round exit since 1984. The manager was visibly angry as he accused his players of collectively letting down the club.

Ferguson's fixation with stoppage-time also led him to describe the referee Chris Foy's decision to award five minutes at the end as "an insult to the game and the players out there". Those comments may go down badly at the Football Association at a time when Ferguson is under orders to treat match officials with greater respect and has a suspended two-match touchline ban hanging over him but the manager's real ire was reserved for his players.

"I didn't expect that," he said. "The preparation was good but I was shocked at that performance. We didn't start right and Leeds did. They fought like tigers but you expect that from any team coming to Old Trafford. It's a disappointment. Human beings can always surprise you but I didn't expect that. I don't think any of them can say they had a good day.

We never got going and the quality of passing - the whole performance - was bad. Leeds had a far better appetite for the game than us. You need luck and they got it but they deserved it because they played really well."

Leeds had not won at Old Trafford since 1981 and the manner of the victory suggested it could be the springboard for the Yorkshire club, currently top of League One, to emerge from a sustained period of decline.

"Our club has had a lot of negativity over the last five or six years, with administration and two relegations, but I said when I came to the club that it had reached rock bottom and could not go lower," said manager, Simon Grayson.

"I knew somebody could take the club forward to the Premier League and beyond.

"Our fans deserved this result, not because we have taken 9,000 to Old Trafford but because we have taken 4,000 to Bristol Rovers on a Tuesday night and every away allocation we have had. Our fans have backed us when sometimes they have not had to. They had excuses and they could have downed tools and decided football was an expensive business. So this is a result for them."

Beckford now has 20 goals for the season but is out of contract at the end of it and Grayson added: "He either signs a new contract, leaves at the end of the season or we sell him now and get some money if we think it is too good an opportunity to turn down.

"He has shown today what he is all about. He has worked ever so hard for the team, he has taken his opportunity and he could score goals at any level. The best-case scenario is that Jermaine signs a new contract or gets us the goals to earn promotion and then leaves."

Ferguson accused his defenders of ignoring his pre-match instructions.

"We're disappointed about their goal because we had spoken about it before. Beckford has got a lot of pace and we were caught napping. It was a bad goal for us to lose but the whole performance from us was bad in the first half."

Next up is the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final against Manchester City on Wednesday.

"A lot of these players won't be playing," Ferguson said. "We have to bounce back and get it out of our system. You have to get over these kind of results quickly."