Ferguson: ´We were in third gear´

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was happy with his side’s 2-0 win over Sunderland, but conceded they had eased off in the second half.

In a breathtaking opening, the league leaders went ahead through a Dimitar Berbatov goal after five minutes and rattled the woodwork twice in the opening exchanges as they threatened to blow the game apart.

Sunderland enjoyed a brief period of possession heading towards half-time but when Berbatov scored his second 12 minutes after the interval, United took the foot off the pedal with a view to their busy holiday schedule.

With a clash on Tuesday against a well-rested Birmingham side – whose match with Everton was postponed due to the freezing conditions sweeping Britain – Ferguson admitted his team had conserved energy in the second half.

“I think the players know they’ve got the game in two days’ time and with Birmingham not having played they’ve obviously got an advantage, so I think we were pretty economical with our performance in the second half,” Ferguson told Sky Sports.

“It’s a good result. I think the first half was really the highlight of the day for us because the football in the first half was fantastic – we could have been four or five up.”

“The second half, I think after the first 10 minutes when Dimitar had a couple of chances, the goalkeeper had a couple of saves, I think we more-or-less went into third gear a bit.”

Berbatov was left out of United’s 1-0 win over Arsenal at Old Trafford on December 14 and despite his rich vein of form – which has seen him net 14 goals this season – Ferguson said the Bulgarian understands that different tactical approaches call for him to miss out.

“Dimitar understands there are certain games where we like to play the one striker and play three centre midfield players and that (Arsenal) was one of the games,” Ferguson said.

“He understands, but his form has been terrific this season.”

Sunderland manager Steve Bruce was full of praise for his old side, where he spent nine years as a player under Ferguson.

“Maybe I was a bit naive too to come here with two up top and two out-and-out wide midfield players,” Bruce said.

“But to be fair to them, they were very, very good and sometimes you have to hold your hand up and say ‘it could have been a beating’.”

“Thankfully the resilience of them in the second half in particular, they kept at it and plugging away but make no mistake about it, they (United) were terrific in the first half, some of their football was breathtaking to watch.”