Danger for United Fans Prompts Talks in Rome

Manchester United will today take part in talks in Italy aimed at preventing a repeat of the crowd violence that has marred their previous matches against Roma in the Champions League.

A delegation led by Ken Ramsden, United's club secretary, will meet Roma's officials to discuss ways of ensuring the safety of the traveling supporters when the clubs meet in the quarter-finals. When they met at this stage last season there were violent clashes outside the Stadio Olimpico and 12 United fans were stabbed. Dozens more were injured during a series of indiscriminate attacks by riot police inside the ground.

Another five United supporters were stabbed, and six arrested, before the teams met in the group stage of this season's competition in December, and Uefa intends to appoint their highest-ranking security officials to the quarter-final in Rome on April 1. United will also ask for permission to take their own stewards and there will be a major presence of officers from Greater Manchester police. Special arrangements will be made to take English supporters to the stadium in a convoy of buses, and United are appealing for their fans to take extreme care.

The incidents in Rome a year ago were so serious that United considered turning down their ticket allocation when the two sides were drawn against each other in December. In the end, however, the club decided it would be a bad idea because of the number of fans who would travel to Rome without tickets, thereby making themselves even more vulnerable.

Sir Alex Ferguson complained yesterday that his team were not ruthless enough in front of goal. United can go three points clear at the top of the Premier League by beating Bolton Wanderers at Old Trafford tomorrow but Ferguson is frustrated by their failure to score more goals.

"The missed chances are becoming a concern," he said. "In our last two games, against Portsmouth and Derby, we have been really charitable. We had a lot of chances. It's a sticky spell that we must get over because we've got big games coming up against Bolton and then Liverpool at home [on Sunday]. These are important games and we want to start taking our chances. We are making chances and I suppose that is a good thing, but if we start taking them someone is going to suffer."