Manchester United will again look to take advantage of preoccupied opponents this lunchtime by moving nine points clear of Chelsea, the Carling Cup finalists, at the top of the Barclays Premiership.

The fallout from their Champions League win away to Lille continued last night, though, when the French club failed to get the first leg of their first knockout round tie replayed. Uefa’s control and disciplinary body unanimously rejected Lille’s protest over the validity of Ryan Giggs’s winning goal, a quickly taken free kick, and also charged the French club with “improper behaviour” after their players briefly left the field in protest at the goal. A Uefa spokesman said that the body had “decided to reject the protest as there was no proof of a technical error” by the referee.

Quite right too, according to Sir Alex Ferguson, who spent much of yesterday’s prematch press conference condemning Lille for the various disgraceful scenes at the Félix-Bollaert Stadium on Tuesday, which included a security scare in the stand in which his son, Mark, was seated. It was clear that Ferguson has unfinished business with Lille, whose protest had him shaking his head in disbelief and disdain.

“[Lille] have got a serious problem,” the United manager said. “Their players did try to walk off the pitch, no question about that. And that came from the coach [Claude Puel]. I don’t think the kit manager had anything to do with that.

“I think there’ll be regrets in that respect because to protest in that way is unusual. For instance, last year after Ryan Giggs got a fractured cheek-bone from one of their players, we issued a video to Uefa and to the referee to assess it because we thought it was violent conduct. Uefa looked at it, and so did the referee, and they were happy that the matter should be closed, so we accepted that. It’s natural to complain when you lose a goal in an important game but not to walk off the pitch.”

Lille will wait until Monday to decide whether or not to appeal against Uefa’s decision to throw out their protest about the validity of Giggs’s free kick, but Ferguson mocked claims that it was somehow illegal — “the laws of the game are the same for every country, and France aren’t exempt from that” — and also expressed concern about crowd security in the stadium, with teargas fired into the United section.

“My own son was in the crowd and Gary Neville’s father was in the crowd so there’s always that worry for safety,” he said. “I’m sure our supporters will be better looked after for the second leg [at Old Trafford on March 7].”

Chris Coleman, the Fulham manager, was also at the Félix-Bollaert Stadium on Tuesday but left early in the second half as the atmosphere “got a bit tasty”. Before today’s match, Coleman dredged up the old myth about United’s fans being anything but Mancunian. “I was sitting next to about 200 United fans and I never heard one Manchester accent,” he said. “It was incredible. The sad thing nowadays is that you get a lot of fans who support certain clubs who are 500 miles away. Nobody supports their local team.

“When I was a kid, Swansea City were my team because I was a local lad but it is different now. Kids don’t want to support Swansea or Cardiff or Scunthorpe. They support the clubs they see on the TV.”

Such comments are unlikely to endear Coleman to United supporters who were already planning a “buy nothing inside Craven Cottage” protest over what they are being charged for tickets (£45 each compared to the £25 cost to Manchester City’s visiting support), but their mood will be lifted if their team are nine points clear of Chelsea tonight.