Sir Alex Ferguson refused to speak to Sky Sports before or after their lunchtime humbling at the hands of Liverpool because he believed the 12.45pm kick-off time gave his Merseyside rivals an unfair advantage.
United manager was unhappy at the timing of the match which meant his team had a day less than their opponents, to recover from their midweek Champions League exertions and contributed to the heaviest defeat by Liverpool at Old Trafford since 1936.
Liverpool defeated Real Madrid on Tuesday night, while United played Inter Milan 24 hours later.
Earlier this season, Rafa Benitez claimed United always received favourable fixtures because of the influence of Ferguson and United chief executive David Gill. Liverpool-United clashes have traditionally been played on Saturday lunchtime to minimise crowd trouble.
Speaking after the defeat, Ferguson surprisingly claimed United had deserved to defeat Liverpool.
"It's a hard one to take as I thought we were the better team," he said. "We have to accept that it was a bad day in terms of the goals we lost, but I cannot fault the display.
"We made some important mistakes and one or two of the players were a little short of what we expect of them.
"With that said, I would have taken a four-point lead at this stage of the season."
Telegraph.co
