Southampton goalkeeper Kelvin Davis had to console Matt Paterson after the striker was red-carded against Manchester United in the FA Cup.Jan Poortvliet's side were reduced to 10 men just after half-an-hour of play at St Mary's on Sunday when the 19-year-old was dismissed for a challenge on United defender Nemanja Vidic.

Captain Davis, who kept the final scoreline down to 3-0 in United's favour with a string of superb saves, reports Paterson was left distraught and apologetic over his red card.

"Going down to 10 men was very difficult for us," he said.

"That made it an even tougher challenge on the whole, so losing Paterson early on was tough to take for us.

"I thought he was unlucky. I know I'm far away from it - but I do know that Matt is not a malicious lad and he could have got away with a yellow card there quite easily.

"He's been apologising, and I just told him that he isn't to blame - because you want your centre-forwards to be putting challenges in at the end of the pitch.

"I think he walked back into the changing rooms underneath the door, he was so low. I feel sorry for him, because he put maximum effort in - but as young lad, it is something that he will learn from and he will know now that in these types of games you have to be very careful."

Referee Mike Riley was criticised for awarding a second-half penalty for handball against David McGoldrick, but Davis feels the official got it right.

Nani's free-kick struck the Southampton youngster on the arm, and the United player converted the resultant spot-kick.

"I don't think that we can have too many complaints about the penalty unfortunately," added Davis.

"Certainly from my position, it looked as though it was a handball - and there weren't too many protests from our players.

"It struck him on the hand in the box, so it has to be a penalty. But unfortunately it went in - and then it was game over.

"When you play against the world's best players and a world-class team, you remember the day forever - so we hope we can take the 'positives' into the league matches that await us."

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