Alan Wiley last night said that he was responsible for increasing the added time from three minutes to four in this match, enabling Alan Smith to equalise for Manchester United in the dying seconds of the game.
Match of the Day highlights had suggested that Sir Alex Ferguson put pressure on the fourth official Chris Foy to extend the stoppage-time, but the referee Wiley emphasised that it was his decision to overrule Foy that allowed Smith to score with just 30 seconds remaining.
"As referees, most of us ask the fourth official to indicate how many minutes of stoppage-time, in his opinion, we should be playing," said Wiley. "But it is always the referee's call," he said. "On Saturday the fourth official thought it should be around three minutes, but I took into account substitutions and a couple of yellow cards. He flashed three - I told him four."
Wiley did, however, admit to having been mistaken when he allowed the goal to stand despite Louis Saha having handled the ball in the build-up. "I would have seen it if I'd been in the stand behind the goal but from where I was I had no chance of seeing it and my assistant couldn't see either.
"The only appeal came from the Blackburn goalkeeper, Brad Friedel, because he had a view from behind - the best view.
"Whenever something like that happens you have to ask yourself if there was something different you could have done. But, considering the play at the time, I would always have been in the same position."
Ewood had held its breath at the end as Graeme Souness, flanked by two police officers, approached Wiley. In the event he offered only a handshake, although Blackburn's coach Dean Saunders said Souness's head was "boiling" afterwards at being denied a first win of the season.
Souness, who the previous weekend had seen his team lose to a controversial injury-time penalty at Southampton, said of the latest setback: "There are a couple of issues I would dearly love to talk about, but what is the point? It won't do me any favours.
"It is hard to take, conceding a goal like that so late. We are just a small club in East Lancashire that has worked its socks off. But if you don't believe that luck will even itself out over the course of a season then you shouldn't be in this business. I'm an optimist."
United looked destined to be heading towards their third defeat in three seasons at Ewood due to a combination of Friedel's excellence and erratic finishing.
Friedel produced a masterclass of goalkeeping to repel United, especially after Lorenzo Amoruso had been dismissed for his second bookable offence with 21 minutes remaining to convince the visitors further that they could glean something from the match.
Had Wayne Rooney been playing in a red shirt then the chances are Blackburn would have been buried long before the final whistle. Even so, there was no denying the brilliance of Friedel, who kept out efforts from Smith, Saha, Kleberson, Ryan Giggs and Cristiano Ronaldo only to get a close-up view of Saha's handball prior to Smith's clinical finish, United's striker lashing high past him into the net.
Friedel said: "It definitely bounced off Saha. I don't need to see a replay because it happened right in front of me. It seems every week we are talking about referees. We went down to 10 men, we were getting battered and then something like that happens.
"It was one incident on one day, but it was the critical incident. We were hard done by at Southampton and hard done by here, but this is not a personal attack on referees. We will take it. We've got a point and we have to take the positives from it."
One acrobatic stop to keep out Kleberson's thumping strike even left United supporters applauding as their side tried to bounce back from conceding Paul Dickov's opener on 17 minutes. Dickov received a long throw-in from Dominic Matteo and turned sharply past Mikael Silvestre before hammering an angled shot past Tim Howard.
The introduction of Saha at the start of the second half added more sparkle to United's attacking thrusts and it was his pace that got the better of Amoruso and led to the defender's sending off following his second crude challenge of the match.
Yet United failed to take advantage, despite laying siege to Friedel's goal, until Wiley offered some assistance at the death. By now Ferguson had tapped his watch to plead for more time.
Everton visit Old Trafford today but, whatever happens, Ferguson insists his friendship with David Moyes has not been affected by the Rooney saga.
Ferguson said: "I have spoken to David a couple of times over the last few weeks over different matters. He came to the Vodafone tournament and was in my office having a cup of tea after the game, so I have no problems with David. He and I get on very well together."
