1 October 2007, by Sean Gillen

Match-winner Ronaldo warns “our best is yet to come”

Birmingham City 0-1 Manchester United

Cristiano Ronaldo says the best is yet to come from his Manchester United side, after the Portuguese scored the only goal to earn the champions yet another unconvincing win over Birmingham at St Andrews.

The former Sporting man’s first league goal of the season was enough to settle an encounter in which the home side often looked the more threatening, with United again well below their top form.

“Maybe it’s not the best Manchester United at the moment, but the most important thing is to win,” Ronaldo told the BBC after the match.

“I think the best is coming. These are the first games and we have a lot of time to improve our game, for the players to improve and to play better. But, the most important thing is to win.

“It was a very tough game against a good team. They created a few difficult moments for us, but thankfully we managed to keep them out. We didn’t play as well as we can, but sometimes you can win matches without playing well.

Great players

“Our good football is coming. We have great players at the club and great staff and we will improve.”

United would have been happy to go into the break with the scores still level after several unsure moments in defence allowed Birmingham chances to open the scoring. Meanwhile, there was little in the way of penetration from the Red Devils going forward.

The game’s key moment came early in the second half, with Ronaldo taking advantage of hesitant defending to put his side ahead. Frank Queudrue dwelt on the ball after intercepting Rio Ferdinand’s throughball, and Ronaldo nicked possession, before calmly rounding Maik Taylor and tucking the ball into the corner.

The Portuguese went close on a couple more occasions during the final half hour, while Birmingham’s efforts were left unrewarded as substitute United goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak made a fantastic save late on.

Birmingham:
Taylor, Kelly, Djourou (Schmitz 76), Ridgewell, Queudrue, Larsson, Nafti (O'Connor 84), Muamba (Palacios 70), McSheffrey, Kapo, Jerome

Man Utd:
Van der Sar (Kuszczak 46), Brown, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs (Saha 64), Rooney, Tevez (O'Shea 89)

Goals:
[0-1] Ronaldo, 51