A year or so ago, Phil Dowd was the curse of Old Trafford, condemned by Alex Ferguson as too slow. Tonight, Fergie was generous in defeat against Wigan, despite a patchy performance from Dowd.
The main criticism to be levelled against Dowd in an overall good performance was that he did not send off Jonny Evans. Already booked, the Man Utd defender cleared out a Wigan player with a challenge from behind that would be a yellow card 99 times out of 100. He really should have gone and it's hard to understand why Dowd didn't give the decision.
Yes, United could have had two deserved penalties. One clear handball by Figueroa should have been spotted by the assistant (the one who ruled out an earlier Wigan goal with an over-keen flag for a foul on the Arsenal goalkeeper) and a United player was violently tugged in the area as well.
But the result was the right one and Fergie chose to rise above the recent days' criticism, which doesn't do the game any good at all.
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