Last night a Michael Owen hat-trick sealed top spot for Man United with an impressive 3-1 win over German Champions Wolfsburg. It was a fantastic win for the team, not because we played well because we didn’t but with 15 first team players missing, only one recognised defender and an away win, who could ask for more?

The Man United starting XI was- Tomasz Kuszczak, Darron Gibson, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Patrice Evra, Ji-Sung Park, Paul Scholes, Anderson, Luis Nani, Danny Welbeck and Michael Owen.

For most of the game, United played in a 3-5-2 formation with Carrick, Evra and Fletcher playing in defence. Man United rode their luck, especially in the first half. Carrick was lucky not to concede a penalty when he took out Makoto Hasebe in the area.

Andrea Barzagli and Zvjezdan Misimovic both had great chances to put their side ahead but they both headed over the bar. Half an hour in and Man United did have the ball in the back of the net but Welbeck’s effort was ruled out due to offside.

Like the game against West Ham, Man United scored very late into the first half. 45 minutes into the game, Nani’s ball in from the left was headed in by Owen.

10 minutes into the second half and Man United were having their best spell of the game. We looked confident and looked the more likely team to score, but Wolfsburg scored. Marcel Schafer's cross from the left was headed in by Edin Dzeko to bring the teams level.

That knocked United’s confidence and Wolfsburg had theirs back. Kuszczak had to save a powerful strike by Grafite.

Sir Alex Ferguson brought on Antonio Valencia and Gabriel Obertan for Nani and Welbeck. With eight minutes left, Obertan skipped through Wolfsburg’s defence and put the ball into the area for an easy tap in for Owen.

Owen bagged himself a hat-trick when he was put through on goal and chipped the keeper.

Man United had 49% of the possession, four shots on target compared to Wolfsburg’s seven. We also had five off target, Wolfsburg had six. Wolfsburg had 10 corners and Man United only had one.

It was a fantastic win last night, we didn’t play well but we got the result. With Evra as the only recognised defender, many believed that United would loose but we won. That should now give us confidence ahead of the Aston Villa match on Saturday.