Poor Roy Carroll. His gaffe on Birmingham City’s opening-goal of the match may have spoiled his chance at lengthy spell in the first-team. With incumbent Tim Howard falterting as of late, Sir Alex recently gave Carroll his vote of confidence to protect United’s goal for the remainder of the season. Signed from Wigan in 2000, the Northern Irish international goal keeper has . At one time relegated to third string behind—the now departed—Ricardo, Carroll had his perennial understudy status confirmed before this season when Sir Alex signed Howard to be United’s chosen one between the posts. Unfortunately for Carrol, Martin Grainger’s 38th minute free-kick may put his recent resurgence in jeopardy. Unable to quickly locate the ball in flight, Carroll deflected the shot a moment too late to keep it from finding the corner of United’s net. No, it wasn’t the type of eccentric blunder that cut short Barthez’ stay in Manchester. But Carroll’s mistake could again endanger his place in an organization that seeks match winning performances from players in all postions, including that of goalkeeper.

Up one to nil going into the second half, Birmingham looked favourable to close out the rest of the match against United’s inconsistent attack. Deprived of Ruud Van Nistlerooy up front, United fielded a 4-5-1 formation with Louis Saha asked to perform as the solitary striker and with Paul Scholes and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer running up from the middle and the right-wing respectively to help out offensively. When Sir Alex went to the bench to eight minutes into the second half to call on Cristiano Ronaldo, it looked as if even the Portuguese forward could do little to aid United’s attempts to break down the Birmingham defence. The substitution payed dividends within just six minutes. Unheralded for his aerial prowess, Ronaldo took advantage of his slack marking and cleverly nodded Ryan Giggs’ cross into Birmingham’s goal. Despite their hardworking performace for the prior hour, with the game at one all, the home team’s claim on the match began to ebb away.

The fact that it was Louis Saha that won the match for Manchester United is almost surprising considering how much of a non-presence he was untill the 77th minute of the game. Frankly, the first seventy minutes of this match found Saha’s performace wanting. Besides one header that was held at point-blank range, Saha struggled to make an impact for much of the game. I was even surprised that Sir Alex’s first substitution was Solskjaer and not the out of form Frenchman. Yet, with Ryan Giggs again playing the role of provider, Saha was there when it counted as he headed an inswinging cross past Birmingham’s flailing goalkeeper Maik Taylor.

It’s All About the Form

This match offered perhaps a harsh result for Birmingham, as Steve Bruce’s workmen-like side had looked on course to grind out a positive result for much of the match. But for Manchester United, the victory itself is more important than the three points they are awarded for the league table. Yes, chasing down league-leaders Arsenal is not even a consideration anymore. And even catching Chelsea for second place in the Premiership is an unlikely task. But for Manchester United there is stillone pivotal match left to be played in Cardiff. And though United never looked today to be playing with the form they displayed against Arsenal in the FA Cup semifinal, even this come from behind victory—having played most of the match in second gear no less—will go some ways towards providing the confidence and momentum needed to lift the FA Cup this May the 22nd in Cardiff.