Fergie in no penalty panic

Of all the issues rolling round in Sir Alex Ferguson's mind ahead of Manchester United's visit to Liverpool tomorrow, a woeful recent penalty record is not among them. So far this term, United have been awarded three spot-kicks and all of them have been squandered. Nani was the latest to fail against Galatasaray on Wednesday, completing unhappy hat-trick after Robin van Persie was unable to convert at Southampton and Javier Hernandez was repelled by Wigan keeper Ali Al Habsi last weekend. Ferguson is pretty certain that run will not be extended at Anfield, however. "It will not be an issue," he said. "I have been here 25 years and 10 months. I have had one penalty kick at Anfield - Denis Irwin scored it in 1999 - so I don't need to talk about that. Wait until the next game." Of far more significance are the commemorations to mark the first Liverpool home game since the damning judgement on the Hillsborough tragedy was released last week. It means emotions will run even higher than normal, and fears about the conduct of United fans have already been expressed following the anti-Liverpool chants of a small minority last weekend. Ferguson believes enough has now been said,...