Man United 5 Birmingham 0

Man­chester Uni­ted 5 Birm­ing­ham City 0, Old Traf­ford, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, Jan­uary 22, 2011. Sir Al­ex Fer­guson was well pleased wi­th his team’s per­form­ance fol­low­ing the vic­tory ag­ainst Birm­ing­ham City. Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov sco­red a hat-trick whi­le Ry­an Gig­gs and Lu­is Nani net­ted a goal each as Man­chester Uni­ted dis­mantled The Blues 5-0 at home.

Pre­miership lead­ers Man­chester Uni­ted had ma­naged a 0-0 draw ag­ainst Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur at White Hart Lane the week­end be­fore, whi­le Al­ex McLeish´s si­de had drawn 1-1 wi­th old rivals As­ton Vil­la at St Andrew´s. Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov put Uni­ted in­to an early 1-0 lead wi­th a head­er with­in just two min­utes and the stri­ker sco­red ag­ain a min­ute pa­st the ha­lf-hour ma­rk. Ry­an Gig­gs then net­ted a third goal for Man­chester Uni­ted in fir­st-ha­lf stop­page time be­fore Ber­batov com­pleted his tre­ble eight min­utes in­to the sec­ond pe­riod, whi­le Lu­is Nani made it 5-0 to The Reds in the 75th min­ute. Af­ter beat­ing The Brummies, Uni­ted now had 48 points from 22 fix­tures, two points ahead of fel­low title chasers Ar­senal who had played one mat­ch more than the ta­ble top­pers. Sir Al­ex Fer­guson: “It was a really good te­am per­form­ance. We were help­ed by an early goal. They had to open up. We were able to take Pat­rice Ev­ra off and give him a break, tho­ugh Mi­chael Car­rick has a sore one. Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov was mar­vel­lous. We were a bit waste­ful at times, but we can­not com­plain wi­th the sco­reline. It helps the goal dif­fer­ence. We have some tough ga­mes ahead but hope­fully the play­ers can grasp the nettle.” Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Ed­win van der Sar, John O’Shea, Chris Small­ing, Ne­manja Vid­ic, Pat­rice Ev­ra, Oli­veira An­der­son, Mi­chael Car­rick, Ry­an Gig­gs, Lu­is Nani, Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov, Way­ne Roo­ney. Sub­stitutes: Jon­ny Evans, Fa­bio da Silva, Dar­ron Gib­son, Paul Scho­les, Gab­riel Ober­tan, Mi­chael Owen, To­masz Kusz­czak. Birm­ing­ham City Te­am: Ben Fo­ster, Steph­en Carr, Ro­ger John­son, Liam Ridgewell, Da­vid Murphy, Da­vid Bent­ley, Keith Fa­hey, Bar­ry Fer­guson, Aleksandr Hleb, Jor­don Mutch, Matt Derby­shire. Sub­stitutes: Mar­tin Jir­anek, Craig Gard­ner, Seb Larsson, Lee Bow­yer, Camer­on Jerome, Nikola Zi­gic, Co­lin Doyle.

Manchester United Quickfacts

Man­chester Uni­ted de­mol­ished Sec­ond Di­vi­sion Birm­ing­ham City by a 6-2 mar­gin at Old Traf­ford in an FA Cup Fifth Ro­und Re­play on the 24th of Feb­ruary 1969. Scot­land in­ter­na­tion­al De­nis Law notched up a tre­ble whi­le Pad­dy Cre­rand, Bri­an Kidd, and Wil­lie Mor­gan sco­red a goal each for United. 

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