Given that Philadelphia Union have only been in existence for six months, most people were expecting something of a massacre in this game but it was nothing of the sort as Philly gave us a very serious test and were unfortunate to run out losers in the end.

Fergie’s starting line-up was interesting in a “we’ll probably never see this line-up ever again” kind of way as he went with:-

Kuszczak, O’Shea, Brown, Evans, Fabio, Obertan, Scholes, Cleverley, Giggs, Macheda and Welbeck.

That this team has never actually played together really did show and the first half was largely a frustrating affair as the play was scrappy and disjointed with no United player particularly catching the eye.

Philly, on the other hand, were giving a fairly decent account of themselves and whilst rarely giving Kuszczak much to do, they did give the defence a few things to worry about.

Fergie, sat in the dugout, was not looking very impressed by his players’ performance.

I expected a lot of changes for the second half but they didn’t materialise until around the 60th minute when Fergie brought on Berbatov, Fletcher, Smalling, Rafael and Corry Evans for Macheda, Scholes, Brown, Fabio and Cleverley.

The difference Fletcher made in the centre of midfield was quite noticable and Berbatov was again pulling the string up front.

Obertan remained lively and should have had a penalty around the 66th minute mark but ten minutes later, he received his reward when he got on the end on of a neat Welbeck pass to slot under the keeper.

A little while later, Berbatov hit the bar and Philly should have equalised right at the death but the ball went high.

And so 1-0 was how it ended.

All in all, this wasn’t the best game you’ll ever see and some of the United performances left a bit to be desired although Welbeck and Obertan came out of this with reputations enhanced.

Obertan is similar to the “old Nani” in that you can see that it is there but he is not always able to produce it but he keeps plugging away without letting his head drop and it was good to see him get a reward in this game.

Welbeck looks ready to make the step up now but I’m afraid Macheda looks as far away as ever to me. He’s a lot younger than the others though so time is still on his side.

You do have to keep reminding yourself though that this is still pre-season, everyone is going to be a bit rusty and the whole point of these games is to build up match time and fitness.