Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted Gary Neville deserved to be sent off for kicking the ball at an Everton fan in their 1-0 defeat.
Paul Scholes was also sent off for two bookable offences, and Ferguson said: "You can't do what Gary did.
"Scholes was sent off for a late challenge, but how many late challenges came in on us our there?
"Everton fought and hunted down every ball. They had that big crowd behind them and we got no protection."
Ferguson added: ""I think Everton knew they had a weak referee and they exploited that to the full.
"But as far as Gary Neville is concerned, you can't kick the ball into the crowd and he should know that.
"Intimidation from the crowd is always there and we certainly had plenty of that, but Gary should never have done that."
Scholes challenge was a kick up someones arse and he got a second yellow for it, a blatent yellow maybe even a red.
I thought Neville had more sense than that, up and coming on BBC 1