Sir Alex Ferguson slams penalty - Sky News Australia

Updated: 17:17, Sunday November 27, 2011

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has hit out at referee Mike Jones for awarding Newcastle a controversial penalty in their 1-1 draw with the Red Devils on Saturday.

A fuming Ferguson was in no mood to bite his tongue after Demba Ba nailed the spot kick for Newcastle, cancelling out Javier Hernandez's opener for United.

Ferguson was furious at the penalty decision, awarded against Rio Ferdinand for a tackle on Hatem Ben Arfa as referee Jones initially waved away the appeals, before pointing to the spot after consulting with his assistant.

'To not get the three points from that is just a travesty,' Ferguson said.

'It was everyone's view, including the referee. He thought Rio won the ball and gave a corner. He has let the linesman overrule him.'

'We absolutely slaughtered them but we just couldn't get the result.'

'It is disappointing but if we play like that every week, I will be very happy.'

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew, however, went so far as to call his team 'Geordie Heroes' after the result.

'We deserved it (the point) on a number of fronts I would say,' Pardew said.

'One was the positive outlook we had on the game, especially in the first half where I thought we played really well and contained the ball and caused Man United problems.'

'You've got to remember it's Man United, this is a really, really difficult place to come to have that attitude.'

'I don't even know where to start with the second half, it was all going off, but (there was) heroic defending.'

'I think the attitude and our defending probably deserved a point. The heroism in that box was unbelievable. It was a fantastic game and a great advert for the Premier League.'

'They (the Newcastle players) were Geordie heroes. They really were.'