Sir Alex Ferguson was left complaining about a referee once again yesterday after Liverpool’s 2-0 victory over Manchester United at Anfield.

A typically competitive and controversial encounter was settled by second-half goals from Fernando Torres and David Ngog that halted a run of four consecutive defeats for Rafael Benítez’s side and kept their Barclays Premier League title hopes alive.

Both sides finished the match down to ten men, with Nemanja Vidic, the United defender, sent off for the third successive game against Liverpool. Javier Mascherano, the Liverpool midfield player, also saw red.

A bad day for United got worse on the final whistle when Gary Neville and Jonny Evans, two of their unused substitutes, were involved in a minor dispute with Liverpool stewards, who stopped them warming down in front of their fans.

Ferguson, who was charged last week with improper conduct for questioning Alan Wiley’s fitness to referee after the 2-2 draw at home to Sunderland on October 3, complained that the “major decisions” had gone against his team and accused Andre Marriner of being influenced by the Anfield crowd. Marriner was also the referee who sent off Paul Scholes during United’s 3-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on September 12.

The United manager insisted that Jamie Carragher should have been penalised for a foul in the area on Michael Carrick and later sent off for hauling down Michael Owen when the defender appeared to be the last man.

“We lost out to one or two major decisions,” Ferguson said. “I felt Carrick in the first half was a penalty kick. He [Carragher] has clearly gone over the top of the ball. If it was outside the box, it would have been a free kick. But the controversial one that everyone will be talking about is when he brought Michael Owen down on the edge of the box.

“He is their best defender, so if he goes off at that stage it would be difficult for them. Their fans put the referee under pressure all the time. This atmosphere is hard to handle for a referee. Whether he had enough experience or not, I don’t know, but he will certainly learn from it.”

Ferguson did, however, concede that Benítez’s side deserved to win. “Liverpool were the better team. They created more chances and were better than us on the day,” he said. “We created few chances. We let ourselves down with our penetration.”

Benítez had gone into the game knowing that defeat would have left Liverpool ten points adrift of the champions and all but out of the title race, but buoyed by the support of Christian Purslow, the managing director, who had said the Spaniard was “absolutely central” to the club’s long-term strategy. Purslow also insisted that Torres and Steven Gerrard were not for sale at any price.

“I am really pleased for the club, for the supporters and for the players,” Benítez said. “We knew we needed to change, we knew we needed a little bit of luck and we needed to win. It has been a fantastic result.

“Maybe it was the perfect game because we knew that we had to perform against a good team in front of our own fans and it was a fantastic performance from the players.

“There wasn’t a big difference [between the two teams]. In games like this it is always the small details that make the difference. Today we had some chances, they had one or two chances but I think that we were on top of them from the beginning. Everyone was doing his job and when Torres scored his goal, it made the difference.

“We needed to win for our confidence so this will be a big boost for the team because they have won against a good team.”