Carroll given chance to prove value to United

Roy Carroll tonight has another chance to achieve his ambition at Manchester United: ousting Fabien Barthez as the first-choice goalkeeper at Old Trafford.

The Northern Ireland international came off the bench to replace Barthez at Southampton on Saturday when the Frenchman was carried off with hip and thigh injuries sustained in a collision with Michael Svensson.

With Barthez ruled out of tonight's Premiership game against Birmingham City at St Andrew's, Carroll is likely to step into the breach ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson's other squad keeper, Ricardo.

The 25-year-old Carroll has already started eight games this season, enjoying an early run in the side when Barthez was injured, then stepping in during the opening stages of the Worthington Cup and against Portsmouth in the FA Cup.

"My goal is to become No 1 at Manchester United," the Enniskillen-born player said. "I know I have time on my side, but I want to get there sooner rather than later. It's the biggest challenge I have in front of me."

A £1.5m signing from Wigan 18 months ago, Carroll admits that the transition from the Second Division has been enormous. "The training facilities weren't fantastic at Wigan, while United have everything you could possibly need," he said. "Then there are all the world-class players you can learn from, in particular Fabien, whose footwork is excellent."

Ferguson is unlikely to make too many other changes to the United line-up, although Paul Scholes may find himself restored to the starting XI as the Red Devils look to extend their unbeaten run to 10 games.

The Birmingham manager, Steve Bruce, is looking for his side to bounce back after a mistake-ridden performance at Bolton on Saturday. A 4-2 defeat pushed the Blues towards the fringe of the relegation dogfight and they now face United, Chelsea and Liverpool in successive home matches. Bruce wants a return to the kind of performance that had become City's trademark in the first half of the season before they were hit by a succession of injuries.

Bruce said: "We gifted Bolton a win and after something like that the one thing you want to do is bounce back and lay the ghost to rest. We know that if we are going to take anything from United or the two big games after that then our concentration levels and consistency levels have to be spot-on."

The Blues defender Kenny Cunningham said: "We have to face up to the fact that we are in a relegation battle. We've got big games coming up and so there's no easy solution.

"We've got to be big enough and brave enough to stand up to it and get ourselves out of the trouble we are in."

Bruce received a boost after the French striker Christophe Dugarry declared himself fit after being substituted at the Reebok Stadium with a hamstring strain. But the midfielder Aliou Cissé is still out of action with a calf problem and Bruce has to decide whether to keep faith with his goalkeeper Ian Bennett – who was at fault with two of the goals on Saturday – or recall Nico Vaesen.