Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted that he "never expected" to lose at home to Blackburn Rovers.

 

Ferguson was celebrating his 70th birthday as United took on Steve Kean’s Blackburn at Old Trafford yesterday, but instantly the afternoon did not go to plan.

 

Yakubu continued his Indian summer for the visitors by scoring from the penalty spot after 16 minutes and then adding a second with six minutes gone in the second half.

 

United hit back instantly however, with Dimitar Berbatov making it 2-1; then the Bulgarian levelled the match ten minutes later, with the Red Devils looking poised to go on and claim all three points.

 

But Blackburn did not give up and youngster Grant Hanley beat United keeper David de Gea to the ball from a corner, heading past the Spaniard and then following his effort up – suddenly it was 3-2 and that was how it remained.

 

"It is a disaster", said Ferguson.

 

"I never expected it", added the United boss.

 

"We lost two terrible goals and you can’t do that."

 

Ferguson refused to single out De Gea for his error however, and insisted the entire side should have performed better.

 

"We all could have done better. It was a bad goal to lose.

 

"At 2-2, I thought we were going to win it. It looked like the momentum was with us, but that third goal was a killer."

 

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