The new Barclays Premier League season may be just under two months away, but Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish and co-owner David Sullivan are already looking forward to their opening day trip to Old Trafford.
The Blues, promoted as Championship runners-up behind Wolves, visit M16 in the opening weekend of the season. While the Midlanders have quickly been established as rank outsiders to take even a point from the game, manager McLeish has taken heart from United's slow start to the last two seasons.
"If I remember rightly a couple of years ago Reading went there on the opening day and dug out a draw and Newcastle did the same last season," he told BCFC.com. "So we'll approach the game in a positive frame of mind and hopefully with a good pre-season behind us we can go there and cause a shock."
Co-owner Sullivan is similarly optimistic - albeit with a dose of realism - and is hoping the excitement of being back in the top flight can inspire a storming start to the campaign.
"Realistically we are going to be 10-1 to win and they are going to be 5-1 on, but United have had some slow starts to the season and let's hope that continues," he said. "We go to Old Trafford with optimism but the reality is that we are going to get nothing."
Birmingham's last visit to Old Trafford was on the first day of 2008, a year in which the Blues were relegated while United conquered England and Europe. Carlos Tevez scored the only goal of the Reds' New Year's Day win.
Edwin van der Sar
Tomasz Kuszczak
Ben Foster
Owen Hargreaves
John O'Shea
Dimitar Berbatov
Jonny Evans
Rafael Da Silva and Fabio Da Silva
Rafael Da Silva
Rio Ferdinand
Nemanja Vidic
Ji-Sung Park and Sir Alex Ferguson
Anderson
Darren Fletcher
Darron Gibson
Federico Macheda
gary neville
Michael Carrick
Paul Scholes
Ryan Giggs
Wayne Rooney
Zoran Tosic
Sir Alex Ferguson and Nani
Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo
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