Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has said fans leaving early to avoid matchday traffic around Old Trafford was to blame for the empty seats at the final whistle of the 1-0 FA Cup win over Sheffield United.
Wayne Rooney scored an injury-time penalty to take Van Gaal's team into the fourth round of the competition, but many United supporters had left their seats before then.
Van Gaal denied that was a vote of no confidence in his team and said that, after eight games without a victory, United supporters should be pleased to have now won back-to-back games.
"Because of the traffic they leave the stadium a few minutes early," he said at a news conference. "There are many reasons to leave the stadium at the last minute.
"When I was looking at matches to analyse our opponent at the beginning of my years as a manager, I have done it also, then I leave the stadium five minutes before [the final whistle]. You never know what is the reason.
"You can be very negative, but we are in the next round. We have won two matches in a row. We are in the next round after a very bad period.
"You have to be happy as a fan of Manchester United that we are in the next round and that we have won two matches in a row."
United supporters responded with sarcastic cheers when substitute Memphis Depay came close to scoring with a second-half shot after Van Gaal's team had failed to register an effort on target before the break.
And the Dutchman added: "I can understand that because it was a fact that we are not shooting too much and we were not able to shoot at the goal so much, and I can imagine that they are ironic."