By Martyn Osmond
July 20 2004

New boy James Milner fired in United's only goal against Hong Kong side Kitchee before United went on to win on penalties. Unlike Wednesday's poor shootout showing, United scored every single spotkick.

Guest player and former Chelsea captain Marcel Desailly had put the home side in front in the first half from a flicked-on corner, and United trailed at the break having had a penalty appeal for a foul on the excellent Lee Bowyer turned down.

United made a number of changes at half time, most notably James Milner replacing the erratic Robert and Gary Speed replacing Ambrose with Bowyer switching onto the wing after an impressive first half showing. Bowyer was later replaced after a not-so impressive second half stuck out on the wing.

In the 63rd minute, Milner received a pass from fellow substitute Ameobi and scored with an excellent low strike from over 20 yards out. Shearer and Speed both had good chances to win the game, but it finished 1-1 with Bramble receiving a yellow card in the dieing moments of the game.

When it came to the shootout, every single penalty was successful for each side until Kitchee's seventh effort, which was comfortably saved by Given. Aaron Hughes, who suffered penalty misery when he missed against Partizan Belgrade almost a year ago stepped up and cooly slotted in the winning penalty for United to take it 7-6.

Penalty takes for United were (in order): Ameobi, Brittain, Speed, Milner (who overcame his miss on Wednesday and stayed calm to score), Taylor, Bramble and the aforementioned Hughes.

Points of interest; Bobby's decisions to start with Jenas and Bowyer in the centre and to start Elliott ahead of Bernard despite Bernard's appearance at training yesterday (speculation as to whether this is caused by Bernard's ongoing contract dispute, is still not fully fit, or simply because Elliott played well on Wednesday will inevitably go on) the repeated preference of a Shearer-Chopra partnership as opposed to Shearer-Ameobi, and the appearances of youngsters Lewis Guy and Steven Taylor.

Team: Harper (Given H-T), Hughes, Elliott, O'Brien (Taylor 73mins), Bramble, Ambrose (Speed H-T), Bowyer (Brittain 73mins), Jenas (McClen 73mins), Robert (Milner H-T), Shearer (Guy 73mins), Chopra (Ameobi H-T)

Shootout:

1-0 Kitchee player scores
1-1 Shola Ameobi scores
2-1 Kitchee player scores
2-2 Martin Brittain scorers
3-2 Kitchee player scores
3-3 Gary Speed scores
4-3 Kitchee player scores
4-4 James Milner scores
5-4 Kitchee player scores
5-5 Steven Taylor scores
6-5 Kitchee player scores
6-6 Titus Bramble scores
6-6 Given saves penalty
7-6 Aaron Hughes scores