English FA Premiership: Graham Poll found an unlikely ally last night when Alex Ferguson acclaimed him as the best referee in England, despite going on to say that Poll had a habit of making "terrible decisions".

Ferguson expressed sympathy with the beleaguered official, though his generosity did not extend to Keith Hackett, describing as "ludicrous" the referees' spokesman's intention to meet Jose Mourinho to discuss his grievances about Poll.

Ferguson believes Hackett's decision will heap unfair pressure on Poll the next time he is in charge of a Chelsea match, and the Manchester United manager made it clear he did not want that to be when the champions visit Old Trafford on November 26th. "In many ways I think he would be the best man for the job but, with all this controversy, I don't know if it would be a good thing," he said. "I'm fearing him getting the game after all the controversy and now that Keith Hackett is meeting Jose Mourinho."

Mourinho had complained about Poll's decision to send off John Terry and disallow what looked like a perfectly good Didier Drogba goal in Chelsea's 2-1 defeat at Tottenham on Sunday.

Hackett, general manager of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, wanted to discuss it in person but Ferguson thought it was a dangerous precedent. "Jesus goodness me, what's going on in his world?" he exclaimed. "Does he (Hackett) ever meet Arsene Wenger at Arsenal or Rafa Benitez at Liverpool or this old guy here? Or is there a preference being given to Chelsea because they have had a bad decision against them?"

Poll, who will be in charge of Manchester City's home game against Newcastle today, was embroiled in further controversy on Wednesday when he sent off Everton's James McFadden for allegedly calling him a cheat 19 minutes into their League Cup fourth-round tie at home to Arsenal - an offence the Scotland international striker denies.

"I haven't seen the Everton game but I saw the Chelsea-Tottenham match," Ferguson continued. "The first thing to say is that Graham Poll, without question, is the best referee we've got. Yes, he's got an arrogance about him at times and a cockiness. But, when players have that, we think it's great. Because he's a referee we think he's a big-headed so-and-so but the fact remains: he's our best referee.

" He does make bad decisions and we've had some terrible ones from him in the past, as have other clubs. We're not alone there because he does make mistakes. But you wouldn't want to be in his position to have to make those decisions and that's why he gets the big games - because he's the best at making big decisions."

Poll will be grateful for Ferguson's support after a week in which Ashley Cole made damaging claims that the referee had told him he intended to teach Chelsea "a lesson".

The case for McFadden's defence has been considerably weakened by an admission from the player that he swore at and verbally abused Poll and the English Football Association's chief executive, Brian Barwick, made a rare appearance before the media last night to speak about the need for "total respect to officials".

Barwick did not cite Poll's case but it was clear what prompted his comments. "They (referees) will make the occasional mistake but so will managers and players - it's a part of life. We have 27,000 referees, we need more and we need them to be encouraged to be a ref. The whole of the game has a responsibility."

Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez said managers had a responsibility to control their touchline behaviour. Alan Pardew and Wenger were involved in an altercation during the West Ham-Arsenal match last Sunday. "If you don't know exactly what happened, it's difficult to have an opinion but we, as managers, need to control our behaviour in the dugout because we have a lot of people watching us and we must be an example," said Benitez.

"I'm rare. I'm calm on the touchline, and that's not very common. We know we have a responsibility. You have to control your emotions. We know we're under pressure but this is also our job and we have to show people we are professional. It's clear that you have to control your emotions as much as possible, or at least be a good example for the fans. It can depend upon your experience also. Sometimes it's good to be passionate because it gets the fans behind you. But you have to have respect for the other team."