Berbatov insisted referee Howard Webb was right to award United a decisive penalty in the first minute of their narrow victory over 10-man Liverpool in their third-round clash at Old Trafford on Sunday. The Bulgarian striker went down under pressure from Daniel Agger in the box after just 30 seconds, and World Cup final official Webb had no hesitation in pointing to the spot, allowing Ryan Giggs to fire home what turned out to be the winner. Berbatov told ITV1: "Of course it was a penalty. There was enough contact for me to lose my balance and people know I do not go to ground easily. "I thought Liverpool put in a good performance and I thought their 'keeper Jose Reina was their best player and made some good saves, but we were the better side." The other major talking point of Dalglish's first game back in charge of the Reds was the sending-off of captain Steven Gerrard just after the half-hour mark. The midfielder left the ground as he launched himself into a tackle on Michael Carrick, with Webb taking his time to calm some raised tempers before showing the red card. Goalscorer Giggs would not be drawn on the incident, saying: "I couldn't see it myself but the players' reactions tend to tell you a lot and the players round the ball were not too happy and once the decision is made you have to get on with it. "That early goal helped us, as did the sending-off, but we had chances to finish off the game and you are a bit nervous when you don't take them. "Defensively we looked good and we could have scored more today." Dalglish was less then happy with the two key decisions, but praised his side's commitment after playing an hour of the game a man down. "The two decisions are important factors in the game, but if you went into detail about them it would take away from the commitment of the players," he said. "It's difficult to come here, they are top of the league and when you are down to 10 men and lose a goal in the first minute you need to show commitment, and the players did that and they had great support here today as well. "We also brought three young lads on to try and freshen it up as our guys had put in so much effort." When pressed on the penalty and red card incidents, he added: "I did not think the penalty was a penalty kick. "The sending off... Is anyone who leaves the ground to get sent off now? The thing was that Howard Webb stepped away from the incident and then blew his whistle after one of our lads kicked the ball."
