Sir Alex salutes OT faithful

Sir Alex Ferguson took his players on a lap of honour after the Reds' 4-1 win over West Ham to pay tribute to the Old Trafford faithful.

The fans were once again in fine voice on Saturday afternoon as United moved to within one victory of title glory, and Sir Alex was keen to salute the part they've played throughout the campaign.

"The fans were fantastic again," he told MUTV. "It's sometimes a bit strange to do a lap of honour when you've not won anything, but the fans deserved that.

"We wanted to honour the supporters because they've been superb for us throughout the season. On Tuesday night [against Barcelona] they were out of this world. Hopefully we can all celebrate in a big way next Sunday at Wigan."

A Cristiano Ronaldo brace, which took his tally for the season to 40 goals, and further strikes from Carlos Tevez and Michael Carrick gave the Reds a deserved victory in their final home game this term.

Sir Alex praised his side's professionalism to stand firm after the Reds had been reduced to ten men following Nani's head-butt on Lucas Neill.

"The game was marred by immaturity from Nani, real immaturity," conceded the United boss. "He retaliated when he didn't need to and the referee didn't have any option but to send him off after he'd spoken to the linesman. Nevertheless, I'm sure he'll learn from it.

"Getting the three points was the most important thing today," added Sir Alex. "To do that we had to endure quite a bit of pain and agony especially when they scored and we went down to ten men.

"There were a few nervous moments before half-time, but thankfully we kept it at 3-1. We changed things around tactically to ensure that we kept possession in the second half. We're as good as anyone in the game at doing that when we keep our concentration and the fourth goal finished it for us."