The Independent Manchester United Supporters Association today hit back over Sir Alex Ferguson's criticism of the home crowd, whom he accused of failing to get behind the team.

The United manager compared the atmosphere at yesterday's Barclays Premier League win over Birmingham City to a funeral, and urged fans to back the team more vocally.

But the IMUSA's Colin Hendrie has accused Ferguson of "a lack of understanding" of the plight supporters face and believes stewards at Old Trafford come down too hard on fans who stand at moments of excitement.

"I think he could benefit from sitting in the ground," said Hendrie. "You can't stand up to make a noise. If you try to stand up, you've got stewards who are ejecting you, they're taking your season ticket away from you.

"It's almost like a police state in a football ground now and if you do stand up, people will take your arm, put it behind the back of your neck and throw you out of the ground.

"Under those circumstances, what atmosphere does [Ferguson] want? The only atmosphere we've got is one where we're a little bit frightened of losing £1,000 for the season ticket we've paid for."

The noise level in the stadium as United laboured to a 1-0 win over Alex McLeish's strugglers yesterday was non-existent at times, a fact gleefully pointed out by the visiting fans.

Sitting in the directors' box as he completed a two-match touchline ban, the lack of atmosphere was even more noticeable to the United manager.

“The atmosphere inside the ground wasn’t very good,” Ferguson said yesterday. “The crowd was dead. It’s the quietest I’ve heard them here. It was like a funeral, it was so quiet. We needed the crowd today.

"It’s all right saying the players will make the fans respond, but in some situations, like today, we need them to get behind us. We’ve played game after game in this period and in these moments we need a lift.”

Hendrie revealed Ferguson's comments, which came seven years after Roy Keane, the club’s former captain, questioned whether “some of the people who come to Old Trafford can spell football, never mind understand it”, had not gone down well with his fellow fans.

"A lot of people are pretty upset, because it shows a lack of understanding about what it's like to be a football fan in 2008," he said. "Fergie's going back to the days ten years ago where it was absolutely fantastic, you could stand. But you can't do that now and the football authorities need to make up their minds whether they want to have fans sitting neatly in a row not being able to do anything or if they want an atmosphere in the football grounds again."

Hendrie pointed to the example of United's neighbours Manchester City, where he claims stewards are far more tolerant.

"It's actually not against the law to stand up. It's to do with the terms and conditions on the ticket," he said. "The interpretation of that rule is different at different grounds. For example, at City, they've actually got a singing area.

"Because you're allowed to stand in moments of excitement, what they say at City is, 'If you're standing up singing, you're obviously excited, so carry on singing'. That doesn't happen at Old Trafford."