Man Utd 1 Birmingham 1

14 goal and counting..

Manchester United's return to the top of the Premier League after last night's 1-1 draw at Birmingham City was a cause of resentment more than delight. They lead on goal difference over Manchester City, with two games in hand, because of an equaliser by Birmingham's Lee Bowyer in the 89th minute. Sir Alex Ferguson expressed disbelief as much as anger over the decision by the referee, Lee Mason.

The controversy surrounded a challenge by the Birmingham substitute Nikola Zigic on Rio Ferdinand before the ball broke for Bowyer to score. "It was handball and a foul on the centre-half," the United manager said. "He went straight through him. If the referee can't see that what chance have you got? In a game of that importance you expect to have a referee who can see that. I have no complaints with my team. They fought hard, they worked hard after a two-day rest. They ran their socks off to get a result and it's hard on them."

His opposite number tacitly conceded that a lapse by the officials had spared his side. "We got a bit of luck," Alex McLeish said, "but with all the bad luck we've had I think we deserved it." He also suggested that Zigic's handling of the ball was inadvertent.

United still have just one away win in the league this season, at Stoke City, in October. "I think it's terribly harsh," Ferguson said. "We outplayed them. We didn't deserve that [equaliser]. It's a difficult place to come to. Everyone who comes here has a difficult game.

"We were the better team and maybe should have finished them off after we went 1-0 up. A number of times we counterattacked against them and just needed a bit more care in our finishing pass or finishing shot." (continues..)

-reports from guardian.co.uk

Stil UNBEATEN and TOP of the league coming new year!! Walaupun MU hanya mampu draw 1-1 hasil gol penyamaan kontroversi dari Lee Bowyer..aku rasa ada 2 perkara positif yg kita ambil dari game semalam!! Firstly..BerbaTOP continues his fine form and scores another goal making his tally to 14 EPL goal up to date and tinggal 11 goal je lagi utk mencapar sasaran 25 goal yg Sir Alex tetapkan utk dia musim ni!! And yg kedua,of course la MU stil UNBEATEN and masuk tahun baru ni TOP of the table..so its not bad day at all for us Man Utd fans in my opinion!! So guyz..keep your faith and B.E.L.I.E.V.E!! GGMU... (full report click here!!)