Tevez Winner Gives Lacklustre Man. United Victory Over Birmingham

Manchester United stayed two points behind leaders Arsenal with a mixed display over a brave Birmingham City.

United bounced back from defeat at West Ham on Saturday through Carlos Tevez's early goal after he carved through the Blues defence with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Cameron Jerome was down injured at the time but Birmingham complaints were limited and they stayed in the game right until the final whistle.

Match-winner Tevez was substituted late on and hobbled away after full-time.

United were determined to keep the pressure on Arsenal and manager Sir Alex Ferguson, sat in the stands to serve out his two-match dugout ban, made five changes to his starting line-up.

Cristiano Ronaldo partnered Carlos Tevez in attack with Wayne Rooney still absent through injury.

Prior to the match, Birmingham boss Alex McLeish - once a protégé of Ferguson in their days together at Aberdeen - promised the Midlanders would be undaunted by a trip to Old Trafford.
And the Scot was as good as his word, making the rare decision for an away team to start with two men up front.

Cameron Jerome, partnering Gary O'Connor in attack, heeded the positive mantra of his boss and scorched a long-range effort over Tomasz Kuszczak's bar within 60 seconds.

But Ronaldo, playing more central than his usual wide position, soon set about making amends for his penalty miss against West Ham in typical fashion.

After five minutes, he smuggled the ball through to the onrushing Patrice Evra who whipped the ball across the box from the left for Carlos Tevez to head against the foot of Maik Taylor's post from three yards out.

With Birmingham's midfield struggling to win possession, United's creative players bossed the tempo and built up a head of steam.

The inevitable came when Tevez dropped deep to flip a pass over his head for Ronaldo, who controlled the ball and instantly backheeled it into the path of his Argentinian strike partner.

Tevez, having pulled Liam Ridgewell and Rahdi Jaidi out of position, simply marched into the vacant space and clinically passed the ball passed Taylor into the corner of his goal.

It was his ninth strike for United and he celebrated in style - sucking on a pink babies dummy.

But 15th-placed Birmingham fought to find their way back in the game and managed to carve out a couple of opportunities, largely through the jitters of United's defence.

A Rio Ferdinand error and a clever switch of play from Fabrice Muamba, on separate occasions, afforded Gary McSheffrey time and space around the United box.

Yet both times he was wasteless, blazing shots high and wide.

No personnel changes were made at half-time and neither did the pattern of play alter.

Making his first United start since March, South Korean international Park Ji-sung raced to the byline on 55 minutes to deliver a wicked cross onto the head of a leaping Ronaldo.

The Portuguese headed downwards powerfully but a superb reaction stop from the feet of Taylor kept the ball out and Birmingham in the game.

Minutes later Tevez crashed a shot against the post and a posse of Birmingham defenders bravely kept out Ronaldo's follow-up attempt.

The one-way traffic continued with Tevez and Ronaldo, quite clearly on the same wavelength, orchastrating a 15-minute onslaught.

Yet Birmingham brought on Mikael Forsell for Cameron Jerome and he swiftly helped remind United of the slenderness of their advantage.

First, he worked space for Gary O'Connor to place decent effort on target, before shooting hard and low himself without success.

With minutes remaining, Forsell found space but scuffed a shot wide with a host of team-mates better placed to his right before united played the clock down for a crucial victory.

Team Line-upsManchester United: Kuszczak; O’Shea, Ferdinand (c), Vidic, Evra (Brown 85); Park (Hargreaves 76), Carrick, Anderson, Nani; Ronaldo, Tevez (Saha 72).

Subs not used: Heaton (GK), Pique.

Booked: Brown

Birmingham City: Taylor; Kelly, Ridgewell (c), Jaidi, Queudrue; Muamba, McSheffrey (De Ridder 67), Larsson, Nafti (Palacios 82); O’Connor, Jerome (Forssell 67).

Subs not used: Doyle, Parnaby.

Booked: Ridgewell, Nafti

Attendance: 75,459


Carlos Tevez nets his 10th goal of the season to put the Red Devils in front at Old Trafford