The wing-back, who had a glorious chance to open the scoring in the first-half when his close-range shot was somehow kept out by Sergio Romero, headed home mid-way through the second period, but referee Paul Tierney had blown for a foul after the ball went into the net via Doherty’s arm - and the Irishman knew he was guilty immediately.
On disallowed goal
“With the way the rules are nowadays, I knew it wasn’t going to be allowed. I think the ref even blew up as it went in the net and he gave the free-kick straight away.
“I would’ve known if it’d hit my shoulder, but I knew that it hit my arm, so I just ran back because there’s no point in arguing. I knew what was going to happen.
“We might have [got away with the handball if there was no VAR], but I guess this is the day of age you don’t get away with anything anymore.
“I guess that’s what VAR is for, to rule out stuff like that when it hits your arm. I don’t know if it was still going to go in or not, but they’re the rules.”
On not taking chances
“Considering the way kind of we play, especially in the second-half, we were on top. We reduced them to not many chances at all actually.
“We felt like we should probably have won the game. 1-0 we feel would have been fair. But that’s the game; you’ve got to put the ball in the net, and we didn’t manage to do that – legally anyway.”
On keeping United at bay once again
“In big games our record is quite good. Against the so-called top six we play very well, and we seem to get on the positive side of the result more often than not.
“When these teams come here, we’re not scared. We know what we have to do, we know how to play against them, and we back ourselves to beat them.”
