Jones: Manchester United must bounce back from derby defeat

Sir Alex Ferguson's side saw its lead at the top of the Premier League cut to 12 points on Monday, and the 21-year-old is demanding a reaction against Stoke on Sunday

Manchester United defender Phil Jones has called for his teammates to produce an immediate reaction to Monday's defeat to Manchester City.

The Red Devils slumped to a 2-1 loss at Old Trafford, allowing Roberto Mancini's men to close the gap at the top of the Premier League to 12 points with seven games remaining.

And Jones has subsequently demanded an improved performance in Sunday afternoon's meeting with relegation-threatened Stoke at the Britannia Stadium.

“We’ve got to bounce back. We’ll get on the training pitch and do what we do best: recover, and we will," he told MUTV.

"There were a few sad faces in the dressing room after the game because it’s not one you want to get beat in. But we’ve got to keep our heads up. We’re still in a fantastic position.

“The title race is not over but we’re in a great position and the lads deserve an enormous amount of credit for putting us there. Hopefully we go [to Stoke] on Sunday, bounce back like we always do and go on to win the league.”

United looked on course for a point after Jones played a significant part in the equalizer that saw Vincent Kompnay put through his own goal, and the England defender was impressed with the way his side bounced back from James Milner's earlier strike. 

“We’ve done that every time we’ve been a goal down this season,” he said. 

“We’ve responded well. We don’t want to be in that situation but when it does happen we do brilliantly to get back in the game. We did that again and we were full of confidence and had the upper hand and we got stung by a late goal.

“It was a very open game from the start and both teams were attacking. We played some good stuff at times but it wasn’t to be.”

And, when asked whether he will claim his side's equalizer as his own despite the ball taking a sizeable deflection off Kompany, he said: “It’s irrelevant, to be honest. If I score or not, I’m not bothered as long as we win so… we’ll wait and see.”