Fergie's 'soft goals' gripe

Sir Alex Ferguson has demanded that Manchester United stop conceding the soft goals that are threatening to derail their Barclays Premier League title bid.

United entertain Wigan looking to record their third successive victory. Yet they do so only after being given two massive scares by Fulham and Southampton, who both came close to snatching points off Ferguson's team. As United lost their opening match at Everton, their position could have been far worse than it currently is, three points behind leaders Chelsea and one adrift of champions Manchester City. And while Ferguson is delighted with a six-goal haul from those two games immediately before the international break, he knows such a prolific return cannot be relied upon. "We are losing soft goals at the moment," he said. "Do we have to score three in every game to win? I don't want to go down that road. "We are going to address it, as we did last year, because defending is every bit as important as the goals we are scoring. There are goals in our team, there is no question about that. But the other end needs balancing out."