Good morning everyone, what a great day it was yesterday. Man United played Birmingham in the lunchtime(ish) kick-off, which we won 1-0, and later on good old Tottenham beat Liverpool 2-1 at White Hart Lane.

You may say that it is only the first game of the season and I understand that but anytime Liverpool loose, I love it. Back to the Man United match, that is what you want to read about.

There was some good and bad team news before the game. I will start with the good news- both Ben Foster and Jonny Evans were both passed fit. The bad news- Rio Ferdinand has picked up an injury and he is now expected to be out for two weeks. That is especially bad considering that Nemanja Vidic is also injured, it was lucky that Evans was passed fit.

So both Man United and Birmingham kicked off their Premier League campaigns and Birmingham did themselves proud. Many expected an easy Man United win but Birmingham made it hard for us. They also had one or two great chances themselves.

Luis Nani was causing problems only seven minutes in when Darren Fletcher put him in through on goal but he was denied by a good save by Joe Hart. Minutes later Hart had to make another great save, this time it was Wayne Rooney who was testing the keeper. His 20-yard shot dipped and Hart had to push it over the bar for a corner.

The one and only goal was scored in the first half, a United move which started on the halfway line ended in a Man United goal. Rooney got the ball to Dimitar Berbatov; he fed the ball to Nani who was down the left hand side. Nani ran down the left and he got the ball into the box, which was headed, onto the post by Rooney but he was there to tap in the rebound.

It wasn’t only Man United who had chances; Birmingham’s first great chance fell to Cameron Jerome who had his 20-yard strike deflect off Paul Scholes for a corner. If the ball hadn’t deflected off Scholes it could have easily been a goal. The resulting corner ended up with Patrice Evra heading Franck Quedrue’s effort at goal off the line. Birmingham did appeal that it went over but it clearly didn’t.

Man United should have gone 2-0 up just before halftime. Evra cut the ball back to Fletcher who was in the box but he totally mucked up his shot. All Fletcher had to do was side foot the ball into the back of the net (there was nothing that Hart could have done about it) but unfortunately the ball went for a goal kick not a goal.

Man United made a substitution straight after halftime; Ryan Giggs was brought on for Nani. It is thought that the injury, which Nani picked up in the Community Shield against Chelsea, could have flared up again.

Rooney was still troubling Hart, this time it was a 30-yard strike which drew another save out of Hart. Birmingham went down the other end and disgraced Scotland International James McFadden shot straight at Foster.

With 20 minutes of the game left former Everton defender Lee Carsely had to clear Berbatov’s header off the line. A few minutes later, Man United should have been awarded a penalty. Berbatov was in the penalty area with the ball and Stephen Carr attempted to make a challenge but instead he trod on Berbatov’s foot. That led to Berbatov falling over but he (to his credit) got back up quickly to get on with it.

Michael Owen made his Man United Premier League debut with 15 minutes to go when he came on for Berbatov. Birmingham also made a substitution they brought on Christian Benitez.

Benitez made an immediate impact on the game, he beat Man United’s offside trap. He was just played on my one of Man United’s defenders, he ran down the left and he was only denied by a one handed save by Foster.

The game finished 1-0 to Man United; we were comfortable throughout apart from one or two chances for Birmingham. The first day games are always a difficult one, the players aren’t 100% fit but we got thorough it and we have three points on the board.