Spurs manager Harry Redknapp hits out at referee's 'scandalous’ decision at Old Trafford

Visibly furious, Redknapp accused Clattenburg of failing to spot an intentional handball by Nani, who had appealed for a penalty when he went to ground under pressure from Younes Kaboul, making contact with the ball in the process.

The incident prompted Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes to take a free-kick in error, gifting the ball to the lurking Portuguese, who pounced for United’s second, decisive strike.

After a few moments of confusion, Clattenburg consulted with his assistant, Simon Beck, who had kept his flag down until Nani’s shot crossed the line.

Clattenburg’s eventual decision to allow the goal to stand prompted a storm of protest, with Spurs players swarming around both officials.

Whether the decision would altered the outcome of a game in which Manchester United had been leading comfortably after Nemanja Vidic’s first-half header was debatable, but Redknapp was incandescent.

“What a farcical way to finish a game,” the Tottenham manager argued. “It was deliberate handball. The referee obviously didn’t see Nani handball it, so that’s why he let play go on. The assistant has seen it, that’s why he flagged. So the referee should disallow the goal.

“How can he give a goal? If Nani has put his hands on the ball, he should be booked, to start with — then it’s a free-kick. If you look at [Darren] Fletcher, he is telling Nani to get back into position, because he thinks we’re going to counter-attack. It’s a free-kick. So Gomes has put the ball down and taken it.”

Clattenburg was hardly Tottenham’s favourite referee before this match. He was the official that failed to give Pedro Mendes’s goal on the same ground when Roy Carroll clawed the ball out from two feet over his line in Oct 2005.

Redknapp was fierce in his criticism of the Tyneside official, saying: “I thought it was a scandalous decision — he’ll come up with some excuse for why he didn’t see it. He made a real mess of the situation.”

But Sir Alex Ferguson took the opposite view, laying the blame squarely at Gomes’s feet. “He made a mess of it,” the United manager said. “The referee played on, because the goalkeeper had possession of the ball. So the goalkeeper has made an error.

"It was bizarre. No-one knew at the time what was wrong. One minute the goalkeeper had the ball in his hands and next it's in his net," Ferguson told ESPN.

"Nani looked back and looked at the referee and the referee said play on, so what can he do but put the ball in the net.

"You can look at the referee and look at the linesmen and blame them, but the goalkeeper should know better. He's an experienced goalkeeper. I thought he made a mess of it.

"I thought it was a penalty first of all and I think Nani felt he handled the ball. But the referee didn't blow for it.

"The referee played on because the goalkeeper took possession of the ball. He then went to take a free-kick thinking it was a foul. He made an error."

Clattenburg’s decision continued a trend of disputed officiating this season. Stuart Attwell was removed from the Premier League list for one week after his failure to send off Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard for an elbow on Sunderland’s Danny Welbeck and allowing a controversial Dirk Kuyt goal to stand.

Tottenham's United curse

Jan 2005: Mark Clattenburg failed to give a goal when Pedro Mendes’s speculative 45-yard shot was fumbled two feet over the line by Roy Carroll with the score tied at 0-0.

Aug 2007: United got away with a foul by Nemanja Vidic on Dimitar Berbatov and a handball in the area by Wes Brown and duly ran out 1-0 winners.

April 2009: United were two goals down when Howard Webb awarded a penalty for Heurelho Gomes’s clean challenge on Michael Carrick. Cristiano Ronaldo converted and United ran out 5-2 winners.