Sanchez support for Niemi
04 Dec 2007 - 07:51:17
-
- Sanchez support for Niemi
Fulham boss Lawrie Sanchez leaped to the defence of Antti Niemi after his goalkeeper was at the centre of a penalty storm during Monday's 2-0 defeat at Manchester United.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson accused the veteran keeper of 'conning' referee Rob Styles into showing Cristiano Ronaldo a yellow card for an apparent 79th minute dive.
Niemi appeared to gesture to the referee that there had been no contact with the Portuguese winger which prompted Ferguson to criticise his actions.
Sanchez believes Niemi was correct in his assessment, although he refused to be drawn on whether Ronaldo should have been awarded a penalty.
"Antti was trying to tell the referee he had not touched Ronaldo - and he hadn't," he said.
"Maybe if Ronaldo had dragged his feet, he would have got a penalty but he didn't, he sprawled over him. Is that a penalty or not? I don't know.
"But if he had gone straight over the top, he probably would have scored."
Speaking about the performance, he added: "As a manager and as a player, I think it's accepted by teams in the bottom half of the table that the big four away from home are games that if you get anything out of them it is a bonus.
"I certainly came here thinking we could get something out of the game and I thought we played quite well in patches.
"We didn't really cause enough of a goal threat, but we've given them their two goals. It's something we need to sort out."