Wayne Rooney's penalty miss angers Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson

17 January 2013 01:07

Rooney, who marked his return from injury by scoring a first-half winner against West Ham, missed a 78th-minute penalty as United toiled to victory.

The miss was Rooney’s second of the season, with Robin van Persie, Nani and Javier Hernandez also wasting penalties this campaign, and Ferguson insists that the time has come for the woeful run to stop.

“It’s not [just] one of those things.” Ferguson said.

“We have to improve with penalties. There’s talk of the boy Lambert at Southampton, he has scored 33 out of 33. That’s what penalty taking is all about. There have been several great penalty takers over the years. [Matt] Le Tissier got 47 out of 48 for Southampton and there’s a player in Scotland who played for Rangers who got 57 in a row.

“Your penalty kicks should be to take advantage of whether it’s a handball or a foul and you should score a goal.”

Referee Phil Dowd’s decision to award the penalty, following a handball by Jordan Spence, prompted an angry reaction from West Ham manager Sam Allardyce, who may now face action from the Football Association after criticising Dowd’s failure to award his team a penalty following a handball by United defender Rafael.

Source: telegraph