Sports

Manchester United Lose Against Newly Promoted Burnley

by Kevin Fed | August 20, 2009 at 04:54 am

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It could turn out to be one of the biggest upsets of the season. Newly promoted premier league club Burnley defeated defending champions Manchester United 1-0 to deal a blow to United's title challenge early in the season.

It was an unfortunate evening for Manchester United as nothing seemed to be going right for them. Going behind to a stunning volley and then missing a penalty kick which turned out to be the turning point as United were never able to muster up a good attack.

Its too early in the season to make judgments but Sir Alex Ferguson will have to get his team back on track before the next game or they will be left playing catch up from the start.

Sir Alex Ferguson accepted that his Manchester United team had been guilty of a hugely disappointing performance after the Premier League champions suffered the embarrassment of a 1-0 defeat against a Burnley side playing what their manager Owen Coyle described as a "mismatch".

Robbie Blake's 19th-minute volley gave Burnley a remarkable victory in the first top-flight match at Turf Moor for 33 years and Ferguson admitted it had been "a bad performance" from the champions. Michael Owen, in particular, had a traumatic evening in front of the England manager Fabio Capello, but Ferguson felt that all his players should take the blame after a performance that will have exacerbated the sense that United without Cristiano Ronaldo are no longer such formidable opponents.

"I'm sure we'll get a response [at Wigan] on Saturday, but we're all disappointed because it was a bad result," Ferguson said. "It was a terrific pitch so that's no excuse. We just should have done better with it. We didn't play well but that can happen. We usually take time to get going every season – sometimes it's October before we get to our best form – but, yes, we shouldn't be losing these games."