Birmingham derby

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In English football, the Birmingham derby (better known as the Second City derby^[1]) is the local derby between the two major clubs in the city of Birmingham, England – Aston Villa and Birmingham City.

1 History
2 Notable derby matches
- 2.1 Second City Derbies in the Premiership
3 Statistics and records
- 3.1 Summary of results
4 Crossing the divide
- 4.1 Aston Villa then Birmingham
- 4.2 Birmingham then Aston Villa
5 Footnotes

[edit] History

The clubs first met in 1879, when Birmingham City were called Small Heath, the game finished 1-0 to Small Heath. On footballderbies.com this is the highest rated English derby and is regarded as one of the most passionate in England.

[edit] Notable derby matches

The two teams have engaged in several hotly contested matches. One of the most noted in history is the 1925 league game at Villa Park in which the home side were 3-0 ahead with eleven minutes to go. Birmingham scored three times in a dramatic final spell to draw the match.

The following year, Aston Villa made headlines with the sigining of Tom 'Pongo' Waring, and his first appearance was for the reserves against Birmingham City's reserves, which famously drew a crowd of 23,000. Waring scored three times in the match.

The most significant clash was the final of the 1963 League Cup, which was staged not long after Aston Villa had beaten Birmingham City 4-0 in the league. Birmingham won 3-1 on aggregate over the two-legged final to claim their only major domestic honour to date.

During the 1980s the teams were in separate league divisions and their occasional meetings in cup competitions were highlights in the game locally, Aston Villa winning all contests in the second half of the decade. (In one such encouter, Aston Villa's David Platt scored four goals in eighteen minutes.)

[edit] Second City Derbies in the Premiership

Birmingham's promotion to the Premier League in 2002 saw eager anticipation for the first such league derbies in 20 years. Birmingham won both derbies 3-0 and 2-0. Both matches were marred by violence as late kick-offs had allowed fans to get drunk over the course of the day.

In March 2003, during the game at Villa Park, two Villa players were sent off, one of whom, Dion Dublin had head-butted Birmingham's Robbie Savage, while trouble also took place following the game on Witton Lane outside of Villa Park, where missiles were hurled at Police who were attempting to keep both sets of fans apart.

The 2003-2004 Premiership season saw games ending in 0-0 and 2-2 draws. Both games were lunchtime kick-offs to avoid drunken behaviour, which was achieved although the games lost none of its passionate edge. The following season Birmingham got back to winning ways, with 2-1 victory at Villa Park and 2-0 at home. In the 2005-2006 Premiership Season Aston Villa finally beat City in the Premiership, thanks to a Kevin Phillips goal. This was followed up by another Villa victory on 16th April 2006, Easter Sunday, with Aston Villa winning 3-1. Birmingham were relegated in 2006 but subsequently promoted in 2007. On 11 November 2007, Villa won their third consecutive derby match with a 2-1 victory at St Andrews. Violent clashes took place outside the ground after the game in which over 20 police officers were hurt.^[2]^[3] The last game between the two sides took place on 20 April 2008, which ended in a 5–1 win for Aston Villa at Villa Park. The scorers for Aston Villa on this day were John Carew (2), Ashley Young (2) and Gabriel Agbonlahor. This is the biggest winning margin between either side for over 40 years.

[edit] Statistics and records

As of September 15, 2007, there have been 122 competitive first–class meetings between the two teams since the first league meeting in 1879, of which Aston Villa have won 52 and Birmingham 39.^[4] The most goals in one game were scored in a league game on the 7 July 1895, in the old first division with Birmingham losing to Aston Villa 7–3.^[4]^[5] The biggest winning margin was 5–0 to Aston Villa on 12 October 1988.^[4]^[6] The last Birmingham victory over Aston Villa was on 12 December 2004, when Birmingham won 2–1 at Villa Park;^[4] Villa have remained unbeaten against their Birmingham rivals in the last four matches the last being on the 20 April 2008 at Villa Park.

[edit] Summary of results

	Aston Villa wins	Draws	Birmingham City wins	Aston Villa goals	Birmingham City goals
League	42	27	36	-	-
FA Cup	2	1	0	-	-
League Cup	5	2	2	-	-
Simod Cup	1	0	0	6	0	Total	50	30	38	-	-

[edit] Crossing the divide

Unlike, for example, the North London derby, there is no shortage of players who have appeared for both clubs. The most recent permanent transfer from Aston Villa to Birmingham City was that of Liam Ridgewell before the 2007–08 season. The last established first-team player to make this move was Des Bremner in 1984, though there had been loan signings and movement of youth players during this period. The last player to move directly in the other direction was Chris Sutton in 2006.^[7]^[8]

Doug Ellis was a director of Birmingham City in the late 1960s before becoming part of a consortium which took over at Aston Villa in 1968.

Former Aston Villa Manager Ron Saunders, who managed Villa to League Cup in 1975 and again in 1977 before taking the club to its first Championship success for 70 years in 1981, also moved across to Birmingham City following his resignation in 1982.

Notable players who have been transferred between the clubs are listed below.