Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has confirmed he will not challenge his FA misconduct charge.

Ferguson was charged with using abusive and insulting words towards an official after an exchange with referee Mark Clattenburg at Bolton last Saturday.

United were given until December 11th to respond but Ferguson will not bother. "We will just accept it," said the Scot, who may receive a fine or touchline ban.

Ferguson was sent to the stands by Clattenburg following a half-time rant during United's 1-0 defeat at the Reebok Stadium. He said after the match he had told the referee exactly what he thought of him. He continued: "Some referees don't like it. They don't like the truth. But I just told him how bad he was in the first half."

Ferguson was upset with what he felt was a lack of protection for his players against what he claimed were "over-aggressive" tactics from Gary Megson's side. And one tackle by Kevin Davies on Patrice Evra prompted an infuriated Ferguson into a finger-jabbing rant as Clattenburg entered the tunnel at half-time.

Ferguson remains unrepentant, adding that refereeing standards were "slipping" within the English game.

Though the United manager openly admitted he had missed a pre-season briefing for managers by referees' chief Keith Hackett, he believes one of the central components of the discussion has been ignored.

"At the summer conference, Keith Hackett was on about tackling from behind," he said. "He made a promise to the managers that tackles with raised feet off the ground would be a red card and that tackles from the back would be a red card.

"Standards must be slipping because there have been some bad tackles recently, not just in our games but in quite a few others. And what happens then is that if someone gets seriously injured, who gets the blame? The referee gets the blame."

Wayne Rooney will return for Manchester United on Monday night and Ferguson is convinced his young striker can pick up the same free-scoring form he was in before suffering a freak ankle injury in training.

Rooney had scored nine goals in nine games for club and country before he fell awkwardly during a head-tennis session 24 hours before the Premier League win over Blackburn three weeks ago.

The intervening period has not been especially kind, given Rooney now knows he will not be at Euro 2008 following England's exit and United have fallen three points adrift of Arsenal after losing at Bolton.

But Ferguson is confident Rooney's return will trigger an immediate improvement in league form for his team, the 22-year-old primed for action against Fulham at Old Trafford.

"Wayne has been training with the first team and has a few extra days to prepare, so I think he will be ready," said Ferguson. "He won't need any encouragement to play, that's for sure.

"His endurance work is fine and his fitness levels are good. He has not even been out for a month so I wouldn't imagine it will take him a long time to get his rhythm."

One man who will be particularly pleased to see Rooney back is Carlos Tevez. Some astute judges suggested the duo were too similar to operate in the same strike force but statistics suggest that is total nonsense. In eight games together, the pair have scored 12 times, Rooney getting seven.

"His combination with Carlos has been really good," said Ferguson. "You do miss these players. There is no question about that. You cope but you still miss them. Wayne was on a good run of form before he got injured and hopefully he can continue it."

Meanwhile, Sam Allardyce has defended his style of play at Newcastle United. His troubled side have been accused of using negative, spoiling tactics but the manager insists he is taking the right approach.

"Resilience is the order, being determined to not let the opposition do what they want to do and to stop them," Allardyce said. "We're in the business of results, so you've got to stop the opposition. From that position you can then expose your own strength and try and expose their weaknesses. Newcastle have been trying to impose themselves on the opposition for far too long and not winning away from home."

After a run of four matches without a win Allardyce is clearly struggling to get that message through to his players, some of whom are reputed to dislike his approach, but he does not believe he needs to raise his game.

"No, I don't," he said. "I know what's good, I know what's bad, I know what it takes to win. I know what to do and I've been doing it for 17 years."

Allardyce has received vitriolic criticism since last Saturday's defeat by Liverpool but he believes his detractors lack a sense of perspective.

"We've gone four games without a win, not 10," he said. "At the end of the day we're still 11th."

Where Newcastle are after today's trip to Blackburn and next week's home games Arsenal and Birmingham could determine his future.