Continued from here.
V. 
Pre Match Summary:Both Manchester United and Hearts go into todays game on the back of a loss last weekend on the seasons opening day. Manchester United went down 1-0 at home to Celtic, whilst Hearts went down 2-0 at home to Derby. Much talk had been made about how well Hearts would manage without Scottish goalkeeper Craig Gordon, after his high profile move to Sunderland in the summer, and they got off to the worst possible start, and the critics will be waiting in anticipation for todays game at Old Trafford. Whilst Hearts are having trouble keeping goals out, Man Utd are having trouble getting goals to go in, and much talk has been made of who would be dropped out of Tevez and Rooney to allow Saha into the frame. Well, Adam Jones has surprised everybody, by naming an unchanged line-up from the one that got beat by Celtic, and the focus will clearly be on Wayne Rooney, as he was very wasteful in front of goal last week. As for the focus player on the Hearts team, it has to be goalkeeper Anthony Basso, as he tried to prove that Craig Gordon won't be missed.Key Players:
Wayne Rooney
Anthony Basso
Starting Line-Ups:
Manchester United: (4-4-2) Foster, Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Hargreaves, Scholes, Nani, Rooney, Tevez.
Hearts: (4-4-2) Basso, Karipidis, Zaliukas, Goncalves, Berra, Ivaskevicius, Stewart, L.Wallace, N. McCann, Pinilla, Makela
Kick-Off: Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez start us off, in a game both teams will be desperatly hoping to win.
4: Some lovely one-touch football between Rooney, Tevez and Hargreaves eventually see's Tevez clean through, but he's brought to a halt by the linesmans flag.
10: Carlos Tevez this time beats the offside trap, but his shot cant beat Basso.
20: A lovely looking through ball from Gary Neville finds Tevez whos shot is parreid by the keeper straight into the path of Scholes, who is denied by a perfect sliding tackle from Goncalves. Business as usual for United it would appear today.
32: Wayne Rooney turns away from two defenders in the Hearts penalty area, but can only fire high and wide.
34: Vidic produces a magnificent save from Ben Foster. As the cross came in, Vidic tried to head it behind for a corner, and only managed to power a header straight at his own top corner, but Foster saved his team-mats blushes.
45: Wayne Rooney comes closest to scoring right at the death, but his curling right foot shot, which beat Basso all ends up, comes back off the post.
Half-Time: 0-0: Somehow the score is still 0-0, despite Man Utd enjoying near total dominance. Saha to be introduced?
55: Jones appears to be losing patience with his current strike force, and Saha is now making an appearance, in place of Wayne Rooney.
58: Makela gets his head to a cross, and he forces a smart save from Foster.
60: Saha had been brough on to score goals, and he really should have done there, but instead, the ball ends up in Row Z.
68: Cristiano Ronaldo cuts inside from the right wing, and curls a left footed shot just inches past the post. Eagles on for Nani.
70: A typical Utd break-away ends with Tevez having the ball and the entire Hearts half to himself, and he has too much time to think about what he's going to do, and Basso saves quite easily.
74: Chris Eagles releases Ronaldo down the left, and the Portugese winger races away from the full back, but his powerful shot is straight at Basso.
81: Goal!!: Tevez exchanges passes with Saha and finds himself clean through on goal, and he slots the ball past the out-rushing Basso. Manchester United Finally have the break-through.
1-0
Full-Time: 1-0: Manchester United run out deserved winners here today. Is this going to be the kick start to their season?
Match Stats:
Possession: 50% - 50%
Shots On Target: 5 - 1
Shots Off Target: 7 - 1
Yellow Cards: 0 - 0
Red Cards: 0 - 0
Other Results:
Celtic 2 - 1 Aberdeen
Derby County 0 - 1 Rangers
Sunderland 3 - 1 Birmingham City
Adam, got that first win on the board today, how do you feel?I'm delighted, of course I am. It was a fantastic performance all round, with the exception of our finishing, but we're going to do some extra work in training this week, and hopefully be back on track come our game at Birmingham at the weekend.You mentioned the porr finishing then, are you wishing you'd bought in another striker in the summer?Part of me is, but when you think I've got Tevez, Rooney and Saha to play up front, it was hard to try and justify buying another striker really, especially when you consider that in mid-field we've got Ronaldo, Anderson, Nani, Scholes, Giggs, Hargreaves and Carrick, who are all capable of grabbing a goal.Do you feel that it may have been a confidence thing, and now you've finally got that goal, you could go on and bang a few in next game?You never know. At the end of the day, footballs a funny game, and it's virtually impossible to predict whats gonna happen from one week to the next.Congratulations Adam.Thank you.Post Match Summary:Manchester United finally pick up that much needed win, but it could prove to be a win that's killed Hearts chances of promotion, but it was far from convincing. Although the performance overall was from the top draw, it just went to emphasise the point that Manchester United need a "fox-in-the-box." The sort of player who'll grab you 20 goals a season. As for Hearts, well, Basso produced a great performance to show that Gordon's not being missed, although the out-field player's didn't really give him much help, and if they are to have any chance of doing anything this season, then they're going to need to improve dramatically. Manchester United's season back on track? Possibly. Hearts season off the rails? Yes, and by a long way.