'We'll fight on!'

He isn't giving up all hope, however, as he said: "It's disappointing but that's football. You have to take these disappointments and we will continue to fight.

"I have told the lads that you have to believe Manchester United are going to slip up somewhere.

"If they slip up against Southampton next Saturday and we beat Aston Villa it will be back to where we were.

"Terry McDermott thinks the club is jinxed but if it's not meant to be, then it's not meant to be.

"And it has looked like that in the last few months.

"But I don't think the last chapter has been written yet.

"We have taken a few knocks but people talk about Manchester United being champions and we murdered them for 45 minutes without being able to get the goal that mattered.

"I was quite proud of them tonight but you have to understand you are coming to the home of the reigning champions. And we were shooting in at times.

"But I am a realist. I don't like the lads feeling sorry for themselves. I don't think about doom and gloom. I still feel there could be another twist.

"I don't think we passed it as well as we did at Liverpool last week. I was very disappointed with the first half but we looked like we could go on and win it in the second half. But the records show a 2-1 defeat.

"Now we are relying on Manchester United to lose at least one game between now and the end of the season.

"But the lads will learn a lot more from this season than anything they could learn from reading books about football."

It had been expected that Keegan would start with Keith Gillespie on the right, but Robert Lee played there instead.

"I just felt that if I had played Keith, as well as David Ginola and Faustino Asprilla away from home, even by my adventurous standards that would have been a bit over the top," he said.

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