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Wayne Rooney
scored the only goal of the game as Manchester United kicked
off their 2009/10 Premiership campaign with a victory.
Rooney's goal was
his 99th in a Manchester United shirt.
SAF short of key team members like Nemanja Vidic, Owen
Hargreaves, Gary Neville, Rafael, Michael Carrick & EVDS,
reshuffled his extensive pack of players with starts for Ben
Foster, with a back four of Fabio, the Two Jonnys & Patrice
Evra.
Mystery
surrounded the non participation of Michael Carrick who
wasn't even on the bench, as Paul Scholes & Darren Fletcher
were the central two with Nani & Valencia wide.
Michael Owen was on the bench as Berbatov & Wayne Rooney
were the striking pair.
United, as
expected created chances as Birmingham played a 5 man
midfield in an effort to thwart the Reds and was in not down
to almost double figured saves from Joe Hart, Birmingham
could have faced a opening day massacre at the hands of the
Reds.
Hart started his
catalogue of great saves when he stopped a Nani shot after
good work from Fletcher to spot the run of the Portuguese
winger.
Rooney then shot
from distance only to see his shot tipped over the bar by
the on loan Man City keeper.
United finally took the lead when Dimitar Berbatov found
Nani on the left wing and the United winger supplied a
dangerous tempting ball for Rooney who headed against the
post, only to find himself fortunate to slot home the ball
from the rebound as United took a deserved lead.
Birmingham
replied when lone frontman Jerome went very close to drawing
Birmingham level when his shot deflected just beyond Ben
Foster's post.
Still not
finished with the attack and drawing even closer to 1-1,
Franck Quedrue's header was cleared off the line by Patrice
Evra much to the relief of the Stretford End.
Darren Fletcher
who has now fulfilled his potential at United was guilty of
a bad miss just before half time after Patrice Evra found
the Scottish Captain in the box, unfortunately Fletcher's
side footed shot was badly placed when really the Reds
should have found themselves two nil up.
After the break
SAF subbed Nani for Ryan Giggs giving the Welshman a rare
birth on the left wing.
Giggs was making
his 564th League appearance.
Rooney once again
was glittering for United when he spectacularly volleyed
from 30 yards out only for guess who to make another
fantastic save.
Although the home
side were winning the match at 1-0, Birmingham did present
danger to Ben Foster's goal when twice the visitors reminded
the Reds that the game was far from over.
Keith Fahey shot
narrowly past the post & James McFadden found himself
with time & space only to shoot straight at Foster.
United were
thwarted again by resilient defending as Lee Carsley was the
toast of his team mates when he cleared a Dimitar Berbatov
header off the line when on another day the talented
Bulgarian may have had a penalty when he was fouled by
Stephen Carr.
SAF then
introduced Michael Owen with 15 minutes to play and Alex
McLeish introduced Benitez for Jerome as both managers
rolled the die.
It was McLeish's
substitution that almost paid maximum dividends when after
beating United's offside trap, Birmingham City's record
signing was only denied by a exquisite one handed save by
Ben Foster.
It was the turn of United strikers next as mufcinfo.com's
MOTM Wayne Rooney almost made it 100 goals, before Joe Hart
denied Michael Owen a Old Trafford debut goal when he was
sent through on goal before Hart made one more brilliant
save, this time with his leg leaving Michael Owen to wait
for another day for his inevitable account opener.
A big happy Birthday to Peter Clarke who is 56 today
(Monday) erm sorry 26 hahahah
1-0
& three points for the start of the defence?.....HAVE YOU'RE SAY BELOW. |
Article by Mark Graham, Editor, Record Keeper & Official
Reporter @ MUFCINFO.COM.
Rooney (34 mins).
