Silvestre Praises United Defence

Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre has sung the praises of his team-mates for holding onto a first-half lead with 10-men towards the latter stages of his team's clash with rivals Liverpool at Anfield, despite the absence of Rio Ferdinand.

Wes Brown was shown a second yellow card for a harsh tackle on John Arne Riise with just under half an hour to go, but the Red Devils did their utmost to prevent debutant Fernando Morientes and company hit the back of the net.

The Frenchman said: "We had to defend with 10 men and we needed a lot of team spirit to keep battling and prove the solidarity between the players. It was backs to the wall after Wes got sent off - but we managed to keep them out.

"That is seven clean sheets now, and it shows what we are capable of. Sometimes you need a bit of luck, and we had that at the end. But overall we deserved the result."

"We have to win virtually every game now - Chelsea and Arsenal are above us, and we have to catch them. We cannot afford any mistakes and we need a winning mentality. We have to keep that until the end of the season."