Birmingham vs. Manchester United (KO 20.00, SS1)

Necronomicon

With City having beaten Villa they've taken top spot (albeit with 3 games more played). United need to preserve their unbeaten record to return to the top - on goal difference in the case of a draw, while a win would see them two points clear going into 2011.

Team news (Brum): Midfielder Alexander Hleb, on loan from Barcelona, could feature on the bench for Birmingham after recovering from a hamstring injury.

The playmaker picked up the knock in last month's clash against Fulham and has recently resumed training with the squad.

He is short of match practice, and McLeish will make a late decision over whether to include him.

Blues have no other new fitness worries, while James McFadden is a long-term absentee with a knee problem.

Team news (United): Ferguson expects to have Nani available for United after the Portugal winger missed Sunday's win over Sunderland with a hip injury.

Park Ji-sung has now left for his Asian Cup commitments with South Korea, while Paul Scholes is out with a groin problem.

There are doubts over John O'Shea (calf) and Darren Fletcher, who was sent home from training on Christmas Day with a heavy cold.

blueshed

i hope fergie will not go crazy and make 5-6 7 changes from the last game.
2 or 3 chages at most i hope.
going to be a tough game for Utd but if we keep playing the way we have last few weeks i reckon we can win this game.

NeVeR

Is this on a Irish radio station by any chance ?

karma_

Mon the Brums'!

Mars Bar

Does anyone else think that Foster is going to have one of those games where nothing will go past him?!

blueshed

i was sorry to see Foster go but he was not good enough to replace VDS at the time plus VDS didnt do anything wrong to loose his place.
imo foster is/was better than pig and i dont know is the new keeper better than foster.

now back on topic of match im going on 2-0 to UTD.

Bodhisopha

mars bar wrote: »

Does anyone else think that Foster is going to have one of those games where nothing will go past him?!

No.

Bodhisopha

When did Rooney last score from open play, for United?

yermandan

March iirc

smokedeels

Bodhisopha wrote: »

When did Rooney last score from open play, for United?

April :eek:

Mars Bar

Bodhisopha wrote: »

No.

Great. I hope you're feeling is justified...

Liam O

Bodhisopha wrote: »

When did Rooney last score from open play, for United?

how long into the broadcast are we going to hear that? About 10 seconds I bet.

Bodhisopha

mars bar wrote: »

Great. I hope you're feeling is justified...

I hope yours is!

Mars Bar

Bodhisopha wrote: »

I hope yours is!

BOOO!!!

Bodhisopha

Liam O wrote: »

how long into the broadcast are we going to hear that? About 10 seconds I bet.

No chance, the match is on Sky.

#15

Bodhisopha wrote: »

I hope yours is!

Do you support Utd Bodhisopha? I thought you were a Barca fan but someone posted some old quotes in the Utd superthread and it seemed as if you were a Utd supporter too?

newballsplease

rooney anytime goalscorer is basically free money tonight!!

homerjay2005

if this game is called off, i will go daft. fog desending on st andrews at a very alarming rate.......

fingers crossed it stays off (the fog that is).

Bodhisopha

#15 wrote: »

Do you support Utd Bodhisopha? I thought you were a Barca fan but someone posted some old quotes in the Utd superthread and it seemed as if you were a Utd supporter too?

That was some wally messing around on my account. I don't support United, i don't support Barca either but they are my favourite team so i tend to post mostly on La Liga threads.

roryc

This was posted in the last 10 minutes

http://twitter.com/stewartgardner

lordgoat

ffs, j'demand the match go ahead.

homerjay2005

berba and rooney are starting which is good..no other team news yet only scholes, nani, brown, o shea and smalling are all out injured and didnt travel.

as do (start) gibson, giggs, carrick and anderson.

all i need now is neville to be in and im not far off in predicing. i hope i am wrong..

so looks like

gibson carrick ando giggs
berba rooney.

Dave!

Please go ahead, dying for this match

Peyton Manning

Front six are Giggs, Anderson, Gibson, Carrick, Rooney and Berba according to Henry Winter.

TheTownie

Park has gone for the Asia Cup, Valencia is obviously still out, who will start on the wings?? Giggs and Obertan??

I see now its giggs and gibson on the wings. Gonna have to rely on the wing backs to get up and down to supply crosses. Especially on the right.

Mr.Crinklewood

VDS

Rafael
Ferdinand
Vidic
Evra

Gibson
Carrick
Anderson
Giggs

Rooney
Berbatov

Ordinary man

I hope anderson isn't pushed to the wing. We need him in the middle and he doesn't seem as good out wide.

Mars Bar

Obertan said he was sick recently so that's probably why he hasn't been featuring but I'm guessing we'll be seeing him some time in this match.

homerjay2005

thank fuc& for that that Rio is playing and Neville/Evans aint...both of them are on the bench.

G Nev Evans Fletcher Obertan Macheda Kuszczak hernandez.

homerjay2005

fog still not great at the ground....but should not affect the game...i hope. would be a disaster to have another cancellation.

big groans from the united end just now when the team was announced with gibson in it!

roryc

How is Nani still injured? ffs

Bodhisopha

8 euro on Rooney to score first. I can just feel it.

TheTownie

I'd say Fergie gone with Gibson to give United a bit more legs and bite in midfield.

eclectichoney

TheTownie wrote: »

I'd say Fergie gone with Gibson to give United a bit more legs and bite in midfield.

I presume Gibson is playing on the right though? And I would probably have started with Obertan, but maybe he thought Gibson would give more protection defensively for Raf to go bombing forward.

TheTownie

eclectichoney wrote: »

I presume Gibson is playing on the right though? And I would probably have started with Obertan, but maybe he thought Gibson would give more protection defensively for Raf to go bombing forward.

I think Gibson will be on the right too but he can also tuck in when needed and track down the right. Overall that gives you more legs in midfield and its also fair to say he is a better tackler than Obertan.

BOHtox

Link please

Wolfe Tone

Brum team announced?

TheTownie

Birmingham Starting Line Up:
B. Foster

S. Carr
R. Johnson
S. Dann
L. Ridgewell

B. Ferguson
L. Bowyer
S. Larsson
C. Gardner
J. Beausejour

C. Jerome


Subs:
K. Phillips
M. Taylor
N. Žigic
M. Derbyshire
M. Jiránek
K. Fahey
A. Hleb

TheTownie

BOHtox wrote: »

Link please

Link here.

BOHtox

TheTownie wrote: »

Link here.

Cheers townie.

reverenddave

What happened to dwight yorkes head it looks like an upsidedown pear !!!!

TheTownie

Jamie Redknapp just said we have only won 1 away game so far this season! :eek: amazing considering we are top of the league...

The Muppet

TheTownie wrote: »

Jamie Redknapp just said we have only won 1 away game so far this season! :eek: amazing considering we are top of the league...

We haven't lost any either.

MagicMarker

TheTownie wrote: »

Jamie Redknapp just said we have only won 1 away game so far this season! :eek: amazing considering we are top of the league...

That couldn't possibly be right can it?

eclectichoney

TheTownie wrote: »

Jamie Redknapp just said we have only won 1 away game so far this season! :eek: amazing considering we are top of the league...

Yeah, hard to believe.

He also just said SAF would love to buy back Foster now with VDS retiring. Yes, Jamie, I am sure SAF hadn't considered that at all before selling Foster...

Think this could be a cagey 1-niller. I think we'll miss Nani's creativity a bit, and Brum are very hard to break down at home. I fear I may not have any nails left at the end of 90 minutes!

reverenddave

MagicMarker wrote: »

That couldn't possibly be right can it?

scarily enough it is

TheTownie

The Muppet wrote: »

We haven't lost any either.

Birmingham have never beaten us in the Premier League too so the unbeaten run will hopefully continue.

eclectichoney

MagicMarker wrote: »

That couldn't possibly be right can it?

It is! 6 draws, 1 win.

Jimmy Iovine

MagicMarker wrote: »

That couldn't possibly be right can it?

Yea it is, just checked this site there now http://stats.football365.com/dom/ENG/PR/away.html

6 draws is pretty incredible considering where we are now

ShamoBuc

Birmingham can make it hard for any team if they perform - especially when they are at home. Should be a good competitive game - and a draw would not be out of the question!

Mr.Nice Guy

Didn't know this was on Sky. Nice one. United's midfield looks quite weak so I wouldn't be surprised to see Birmingham get something from this. Hope not. Hopefully Rooney will get a goal.