Sir Alex Ferguson laments Manchester United's defensive display

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson believes that his side "deserved to get battered" by Reading on Saturday.

The Red Devils came from a goal down to defeat the Royals 4-3 at the Madejski Stadium in the Premier League.

"We deserved to get battered today," Ferguson told the BBC. "Nobody competed for the crosses.

"In fairness Reading have a great delivery of the ball - the boy [Nicky] Shorey whips them in, fantastic crosses but we should be doing better than that. It was terrible.

"If you make mistakes like that defending then you are going to have to do rescue jobs every week. Today was another rescue job. It was a miracle that we won the way we were defending. I'm just glad we did win it."

United are now three points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table.