United See Off Birmingham at St. Andrews

The win leaves The Red Devils just 6 points behind Chelsea who were held to a 0-0 draw by Middlesbrough today at Stamford Bridge and 12 off Arsenal who beat Liverpool 4-2 yesterday.

Sir Alex Ferguson decided to rest skipper Roy Keane, leaving Eric Djemba-Djemba with a chance to prove himself in the centre of the field. Ruud van Nistelrooy was left out of the squad due to a knee injury so Louis Saha started upfront. Roy Carroll kept his place in-between the sticks.

Steve Bruce's Blues made a forceful and dynamic start despite losing Stan Lazaridas who was strechered off after 13 minutes.

Roy Carroll was called into action early on after Mikael Forssell linked up well with Bryan Hughes to let Hughes try his luck from range but Carroll did well to parry the shot. The Northern Ireland international 'keeper then had to watch Robbie Savage's free-kick hammer the woodwork.

United were looking weak upfront with the absence of Ruud van Nistelrooy and failed to get a decent shot on goal all half.

Birmingham finally broke the deadlock after they were awarded a free-kick from a dangerous position which Martin Grainger stepped up bravely to take. His 30-yard piledriving free-kick found a way past a hapless Roy Carroll to put Steve Bruce's outfit 1-0 up with just 6 minutes left of the half.

      Half time: Birmingham City 1 - Manchester United 0

Sir Alex must have really turned on the 'hairdryer' at half-time because United were looking like they wanted to win this in the second half.

Frenchman Louis Saha had the chance to equalise in the opening minute of play when Paul Scholes gave the striker a golden opportunity in-front of goal which the £12 million man fumbled. Saha had another chance minutes later when his header looked goal-bound but Maik Taylor did very well to save Birmingham's blushes.

Fergie sent on Cristiano Ronaldo on the 55th minute and what an inspired substitution that was. The winger headed home from Ryan Giggs' cross after just 5 minutes of coming on as a substitute. One-a-piece - game on.

18 minutes later United recovered from their first half shambles and completed the recovery when Louis Saha headed past Maik Taylor from another Ryan Giggs cross to win the game for United.

      Final score: Birmingham City 1 - Manchester United 2
                                      Att: 29, 548

Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Martin Taylor, Cunningham, Upson, Lazaridis (Grainger 14), Johnson, Savage, Clemence (John 78), Hughes, Forssell, Morrison, Grainger (Clapham 45).

United:  Carroll, Gary Neville, Brown, Silvestre, O'Shea, Fletcher, Djemba-Djemba (Forlan 74), Scholes, Giggs (P. Neville 88), Saha, Solskjaer (Ronaldo 55)