Sir Alex Ferguson admitted Ashley Young might have emerged from the past seven days with a reputation as someone who goes down too easily, but the Manchester United boss claims not to have seen any evidence he is a diver.
A week after Young was embroiled in a spot-kick row against QPR, he was at the centre of more controversy in Sunday's 4-0 win over former club Aston Villa. Referee Mark Halsey decided the contact - as Young attempted to step inside Ciaran Clark - was worthy of a penalty just six minutes into the Old Trafford encounter.
Villa boss Alex McLeish disagreed, while Ferguson felt it was a penalty but conceded Young had gone looking for it and, when asked directly whether the winger might be seen as someone who goes down too easily, Ferguson responded on MUTV: "I think in that situation, in the last week or two, yeah."
He added: "I have never seen that in him. It is not an habitual thing with him. He was brought down. He just made the most of it. But he definitely brought him down. There was contact. He has bought the fact that Ashley jinked inside him.
"He has gone down quite easily but it was a penalty. He was definitely brought down."
Newcastle's Ryan Taylor, who was particularly outspoken on Twitter agreed with McLeish. The Villa boss' mind wandered back to an incident at Anfield last weekend when youngster Samir Carruthers went down under Daniel Agger's tackle and was booked for diving.
"We had a young player got booked for diving at Liverpool last week when it should have been a penalty," he said. "It looks as if he is a diver because they have said he was simulating.
"It is hard to say to the ref that he totally got it wrong because it is a split-second. But I didn't think it was a penalty.
"Ashley threw his leg into Ciaran Clark's leg and Ciaran was static. He planted his feet firmly on the ground. He then tries to pull his leg away.
"Some other people may disagree but I felt it was a very soft decision."
Source: PA
