TEVEZ OPENS '08 WITH WINNER

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

Before this season, the last time Birmingham had been in the Premiership was the 05/06 season. 90s United defender Steve Bruce was their manager and though Brum weren't really the dead men walking of that season they still wound up dropping out of the top flight briefly. Admittedly they didn't do badly against us at St Andrews, getting a 2-2 draw out of us. However we still helped to send them on their way down by winning at Old Trafford, sorry Steve.

Well Brum made it back to the Premiership at the first attempt and Brucey was still around for our last visit to St Andrews. Since then, City have run into relegation trouble and Brucey has been replaced by someone who is for both Fergie and I, a ghost of the more distant past! Alex McLeish was a young defender on the Aberdeen side that Fergie gaffered to the 1983 Cup Winners Cup and remained at Pittodrie to captain the early 90s Dons team I supported as a kid. By rights he shouldn't be south of the border right now given that he abandoned his Scotland post to take up the Brum job but still, he was taking a City team to Old Trafford. He wasn't facing the best United XI of all time. Rio as captain, O'Shea left back, Nani right mid, Carrick and Anderson centre mid, Park left mid for the first time in ages, Tevez and Ronaldo up front.

Unlike their last match, United opened 2008 with attacking football and City were soon boxed in. Slight problem, their goalie kept getting in the way of the United attack but that proved to be delaying the inevitable. In the 25th minute United caught the city defence on the hop and a 1-2 between Ronaldo and Tevez resulted in the Argie assasin hitting the net. Brum had the odd attack but really United should have made it two before half time, Fergie blaming a quiet crowd for our sludgy performance.

Once again United attacked from the start of the second half. We should certainly have gotten more goals, there were hardly any City chances for most of the match but for whatever reason we couldn't find the net. Credit to Maik Taylor for his role in procedings but this certainly won't go down as a classic match. In the later stages of the match Birmingham caused their share of headaches, but couldn't find the net themselves. Three points grabbed the messy way.

Elsewhere, Arsenal beat West Ham 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium with a smooth performance, wrapping up the game early with the Hammers unable to repeat their mugging of United. Chelsea then beat Fulham 2-1 at Craven Cottage despite the home side leading at half time, the Blues turning the game round early in the second period. That leaves United still in second place in the Premiership, two points behind leaders Arsenal but still four points ahead of Chelsea and the detour through the Champions League preliminaries.

North of the border, Aberdeen faced Inverness CT in the SPL. The first half proved pretty even with the Dons having the early attacks but Caley getting their act together well enough though the Reds had the better chances. In the second half it was Caley that really stepped up a gear with their defence managing to soak up the Dons attack more often which provided a better foundation for their attacks. It looked like Jimmy Calderwood was going to have to settle for a draw at least but when Nicholson hit an early penalty it turned into a slightly messy win.

Elsewhere, Falkirk beat Kilmarnock 1-0 at Rugby Park. The big story of the New Year's SPL fixture list though is that of half of them being postponed out of respect to the Motherwell veteran and captain Phil O'Donnell. The name rang half a bell when I heard about the news, admittedly Marc Vivian-Foe's name rang a bigger bell when he died in similar circumstances. Still, the idea of a guy dying on a football pitch is sickening. RIP! That leaves the Dons still 5th in the SPL, four points heads of 7th placed Hibs(and the bottom half of the table) and three points behind Motherwell and a garunteed UEFA Cup spot though both those teams have a game in hand over the Reds.

It's showtime in the FA Cup on the weekend.

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