Oops, We Did It Again

Birmingham 1 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Birmingham: Bowyer (90)
Manchester United: Berbatov (58)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Carrick, Anderson (Fletcher 73), Gibson (Hernandez 90), Giggs, Rooney, Berbatov

We still can't keep leads away from home. This game was a huge downer, especially how we got the lead then proceeded to give it away at the last minute of regulation time.

It wasn't a pretty game. Birmingham, mired at the bottom of the table, set up shop to frustrate the living hell outta us. We never got our passing game going, and barely 48hrs after the last game, we faced up to a fresh Birmingham team that was determined to spoil the festivities. And if that wasn't bad enough, we came in with a reputation of giving games away late when we're not at our favourite hunting ground. Everything pointed to a draw and we didn't help by living up to our reputation.

With the exception of an fabulous strike by Berbatov, there really weren't many bright spots in the game. Instead of pressing on for the kill, we sat back too deep and invited Birmingham to come forward and by doing that, the inevitable happened. Although it was a blantant handball by Zigic and a hint of offside by Bowyer, the bulk of the blame had to fall on ourselves. Spoilt by the pretty play of the past few games, we let ourselves down by not doing enough.

I suppose that on the bright side, we're still top of the heap come 2011, but barely. Our noisy neighbours have crept up and are sitting pretty alongside us, as the top gets uncomfortably crowded as a bunch of teams are within striking distance. Yet given how we're started our campaign, I suppose this is still a good position to be in. Looks like we have to pull up our socks and do what we traditionally do, and that is to finish strong into the second half of the season.