We were lucky - Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson claimed Manchester United were lucky to beat Liverpool - and admitted the referee was right to send off Paul Scholes for violent conduct.

The Manchester United manager believes the last-gasp 1-0 win over Liverpool at Anfield was a "massive result" in the Barclays Premiership title race.

Ferguson was honest enough to concede his club's good fortune, saying: "If you are looking for the luck of champions, then we have certainly had that in the last two matches."

John O`Shea scored in injury-time to put the Red Devils nine points ahead of Chelsea and Ferguson added: "Liverpool will feel very unlucky and they deserve to. It was a fantastic result. We had a lot of narrow escapes and Liverpool upset our rhythm.

"It is a massive result for us. We broke away late on against Fulham and scored and now we`ve done it here. We`ve had that bit of luck in the last two weeks but you need luck if you are to win titles."

The Scot is still not ready to celebrate the title however.

He said: "I don`t think anything is impossible in modern-day football. In 1998 we had a great lead going into an Arsenal match but we had some terrible injuries. The pool then was nothing like as strong as it is today though. That helps us."

United midfielder Scholes was sent off with four minutes left after swinging an arm at Xabi Alonso and will miss three games.

Ferguson told MUTV: " I've seen it, he's lifted his hand and you can't do that. I think the referee [Martin Atkinson] got one right in terms of intent."

Striker Wayne Rooney hobbled off clutching his thigh after a high tackle by Jamie Carragher. "We have to get him scanned but it's a bad tackle around the knee. We will have to judge it with the game [Lillle in the Champions League] coming up in midweek," said the United boss.