Ferguson praises back-ups

Sir Alex Ferguson was full of praise for his Manchester United players following their 3-0 victory away to Aldershot in the Carling Cup.

It was an entirely different line-up from the team that lost 6-1 to Manchester City in the English Premier League on Sunday.

And Ferguson was happy with the performance of the replacements in Tuesday’s fourth-round tie, particuarly the strike partnership of Michael Owen and Dimitar Berbatov.

“The players always give me nudges (to play),” Ferguson told Sky Sports.

“It’s difficult picking a team when you’ve got so many good players, we’ve got a fantastic squad, that’s why I’m bound to play these players tonight, they need games.”

“They’ve not had too many first-team games to be honest because the consistency of the team has been very good, we’ve not had to make any changes.”

“But with Michael Owen, every time he plays, he scores; it’s a fantastic record he’s got, he’s a fantastic professional.”

“Dimitar Berbatov has had a fantastic game tonight, scored a tremendous goal from great football.”

“So they’ve all done well, (Antonio) Valencia, Tom Cleverley’s back as well which is really good because the boy is an outstanding footballer.”

The United boss was also very complimentary of Dean Holdsworth’s Aldershot team, and was happy with the way his side dealt with the threat of an upset.

“I think Aldershot have fought really hard and they take a lot of credit, they never stopped running, they never stopped pressing the ball, they put in a good shift,” Ferguson said.

“We obviously showed our quality at times and could have maybe scored a few towards the end of the match when they tired.”

“(In) the cup ties, the most important thing is to win the game and we’re into the next round now.”