The Second City Derby


Let's get one thing straight, Villa and Blues haven't always been the biggest rivals, as Villa's traditional rivals have been West Brom up until recent times. When I was growing up Villa were hardly ever in the same division, so the hatred was pretty one way coming from Small Heath. At the time Villa's main local rivals always seemed to be Coventry, and although it didn't feel like a Derby to the Villa fans it certainly was seen as such by the Coventry fans.


That was all to change when Blues came up in 2002-2003, when things got really nasty on and off the pitch. In this season Blues won both games 3-0 at the sty and 2-0 at Villa Park, and the only highlight for Villa was seeing Dublin nut Savage (see picture above), and even he got sent off. in fact the first few year's of Blues return to the Premier League were not happy ones for Villa with the games ending in draws (0-0 and 2-2) the following season and Blues winning both encounters in 2004-2005 (2-1 and 2-0).


The 2005-6 season was much better though with Villa winning 1-0 at the Sty through a Kevin Phillips goal and then Villa all but putting them down at Villa Park on a day when even the ultimately useless Milan Baros was on the score sheet.


2006-2007 saw Villa and Blues in their natural places, so there was no derby as Villa were in the top flight and Blues were in a division lower. In fact the nearest Villa had to a derby game was Sheffield United.


This season sees Blues visiting the premier league again and Villa Park on Sunday, last time the clubs met earlier in the season ex-Villan Ridgewell scored an own goal and Gabi scored a winner in the dying seconds of the game for Villa. Unsurprisingly there was trouble before, after and during the game.


There have been some notable derby games in the past, but I tend to ignore any that Blues did well in, which was a couple of them. One notable one is the reserves game between the clubs when Pongo Waring made his debut in 1925 and scored a hat-trick. Another one was during the 1980's when Villa and Blues only seemed to ever play in cups, on one such occassion David Platt scored 4 goals in 14 minutes.


Although I said that the animosity is only a recent development, the first Derby was in 1879 when Small Heath beat Villa 1-0 and since then hardly any players have crossed the divide. Ron Saunders left Villa after arguing with Doug and became the Blues manager shortly after winning the league with Villa in 1981, Rob Hopkins was kicked out of Villa when his affiliation with the Zulus came to light. Des Bremner went to Blues when his Villa days were numbered back in the 80's too ,and then last season Liam Ridgewell went there to find first team football and I can't think of anyone coming from St.Andrew's to Villa Park.


The record of derby games is Villa have won 42, 27 have been drawn and Blues have won 36. I'm looking forward to the game on Sunday, although as always it's frustrating being abroad for it and as usual I feel nervous about how it will go.


I know this is a crap post, but it's a form of therapy!

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