Sir Alex Ferguson criticises fourth official in Tottenham Hotspur draw

Sir Alex Ferguson has criticised assistant referee Simon Beck for his failure to award Manchester United a penalty in their 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

Clint Dempsey's late equaliser cancelled out Robin van Persie's opener and Ferguson bemoaned the performance of the official after Wayne Rooney went down under a Stephen Caulker challenge in the second half.

"I thought he had a shocking game," Ferguson told Sky Sports. "I thought he had a bad game and I was disappointed with his performance, I really was.

"We remember him well from his time at the Chelsea game when [Didier] Drogba was three yards offside and he gave onside. We never got anything from that side of the pitch."

The Scot also admitted that his side should have wrapped the game up with the amount of chances they carved out with their counter-attacking football.

"It was the final ball that was letting us down. We should have killed them off, we had four or five chances to do that and when you don't take your chances [you don't win]."

However, the Scot did recognise that a point away to Spurs should not be considered a poor result.

"Teams will drop points here [at White Hart Lane], there's no doubt about that. They will take points off teams that matter to us."

The draw means United are now five points clear of local rivals Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.