Second City derby
In English football, the Second City derby or Birmingham derby is the local derby between the two major clubs in the city of Birmingham—Aston Villa F.C. and Birmingham City F.C.—first contested in 1879. Villa play at Villa Park while Birmingham play at St Andrew's, the two grounds separated by roughly. It is known as the Second City Derby based on Birmingham being referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom. The two clubs are generally regarded as each other's most fierce rivals. In addition both sides have affiliated women's sides, Aston Villa W.F.C. and Birmingham City W.F.C.
On 10 March 2019, Jack Grealish was "punched from behind by a pitch invader" during the derby match at St Andrew's. Later in the second half, Grealish scored to give Villa a 1–0 victory. Following Villa's promotion to the Premier League, the teams have not met since.
History
The clubs first met on 27 September 1879, when Birmingham City were called Small Heath Alliance. The game, on a pitch at Small Heath's Muntz Street ground described by the Villa players as "only suitable for pot-holing", finished 1–0 – recorded as "one goal and a disputed goal to nil" – to the home side. Villa won the first competitive game between the clubs, in the Second Round of the FA Cup at Wellington Road in 1887, by four goals to nil,The last pre-league FA Cup campaign saw the first competitive "Second City derby" occur on Saturday, 5 November 1887. Villa beat Small Heath 4–0 in the fifth round. Tommy Green scored a brace before half-time with Albert Brown and Albert Allen adding to the score in the second half. This was their first meeting with modern rivals Birmingham City.
The first league encounter, in the First Division in the 1894–95 season, saw Villa win 2–1 after Birmingham had been promoted to the first division for a two year stint.
Second Division Small Heath F.C. took part in the 1900–01 FA Cup, losing in the third round to First division Aston Villa after a replay, Villa's Billy Garraty being the sole scorer over the two fixtures. That season Small Heath finished runners-up in Second Division, so were promoted to the First Division for 1901–02. Villa won 2–0 at Coventry Road Muntz Street with goals by Jack Devey and Joe Bache. In the 1901 Boxing Day fixture, Villa's Jasper McLuckie was the only scorer. At the end of the season Birmingham were relegated back to the Second Division.
Birmingham were promoted to the First Division in 1903–04 and Second City derbies were played up to 1907–08 when they were relegated. The teams would not meet again in top flight competition until fifteen years later when Birmingham were again promoted to the first division for 1921–22. The derbies continued until Aston Villa were relegated in 1935–36. The two teams have engaged in several hotly contested matches. In the 1925 league game at Villa Park, with the home side 3–0 ahead with eleven minutes to go, Blues scored three times in a dramatic final spell to draw the match. The following year, Aston Villa made headlines with the signing 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.
Villa were promoted for the 1938–39 season. Both teams won their home games. Following Birmingham's relegation there would be no further derbies until their promotion for the 1948–49 season.
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. Blues won 3–1 on aggregate over the two-legged final to claim their first major domestic honour.
During the late 1970s to early 1980s both Villa and Blues met regularly in the First Division and both teams had some memorable successes in the fixture. In 1980–81 Villa did the double over Blues and went on to win the First Division title. Blues scored a memorable 3–0 victory at St Andrew's in the first meeting following Villa's European Cup triumph in 1982. Both teams promptly went into decline. Blues racked up a 3–0 win in a relegation battle at Villa Park in March 1986 but were relegated at the end of that season. Villa would be demoted the following campaign. The next time Villa met Blues in a league fixture at Villa Park again was in the Second Division and saw a 2–0 Blues victory. The reverse fixture at St Andrew's was a 2–1 Villa victory with both goals coming from Garry Thompson. The two sides would only meet again in the 1980s in cup competitions. Villa won 7–0 on aggregate when they clashed twice in the 1988–89 League Cup. The same season Villa also won a Full Members Cup clash 6–0.
The Premier League Era
Following the creation of the Premier League, Aston Villa and Birmingham City met twice in the second round of the 1993–94 League Cup. Villa won both matches 1–0. The game at St Andrew's was settled by a Kevin Richardson goal after his keeper Mark Bosnich had saved a penalty from John Frain to keep the game at 0–0. The second leg at Villa Park was notable for a winning goal from Villa's Dean Saunders and a red card for Blues' Paul Tait. Villa went on to win the trophy.Blues' promotion to the Premier League in 2002 saw fans eagerly anticipating the first league derbies in 15 years. Blues won both derbies 3–0 and 2–0, respectively. Both matches saw goalkeeping errors by Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman, including a goal scored directly from an Olof Mellberg throw-in; Blues supporters would later sarcastically name Enckelman runner-up in their player of the year vote. Violence between both sets of fans occurred before both matches as evening kick-off times 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, Dion Dublin for a head-butt on Blues' Robbie Savage and Joey Guðjónsson for a reckless two-footed tackle on Matthew Upson. Trouble also took place following the game on Witton Lane outside Villa Park, where missiles were hurled at police who were attempting to keep both sets of fans apart.
The 2003–04 Premiership season saw games ending in 0–0 and 2–2 draws. The 2–2 draw saw Blues recover a two-goal deficit thanks to a 90th-minute equaliser from Stern John. Both games were lunchtime kick-offs to avoid drunken behaviour, which was achieved although the games lost none of their passionate edge. The following season Blues got back to winning ways, with 2–1 victory at Villa Park just before Christmas and 2–0 at home in March, Villa keeper Thomas Sørensen making mistakes in both matches, though it's debatable if his errors directly affected the respective results. In the 2005–06 Premiership Season, Villa finally beat Blues in the Premiership, thanks to a Kevin Phillips goal. This was followed up by another Villa victory on 16 April 2006, Easter Sunday, with Aston Villa winning 3–1 thanks to two goals from Milan Baroš and a bicycle kick from Gary Cahill. Blues were relegated in 2006 but subsequently promoted in 2007.
In November 2007, Villa won their third consecutive derby match with a 2–1 victory at St Andrew's. Former Villa defender Liam Ridgewell scored an own goal to put Villa 1–0 up, Blues equalised through Mikael Forssell only for Gabriel Agbonlahor to clinch it with a late header for Villa, having cleared off his own line seconds before. Violent clashes took place outside the ground after the game in which over 20 police officers were hurt. The derby on 20 April 2008 between the two sides ended in a 5–1 win for Aston Villa at Villa Park, the biggest winning margin for either side in a league match for 40 years.
Villa continued their winning ways in the derby, when they won both of the meetings between the clubs in the 2009–10 Premier League season. The first took place on 13 September 2009 at St Andrew's, and ended 1–0 to Aston Villa, with Agbonlahor scoring the winner in the 85th minute, once again there was trouble with 14 arrests. Villa then went on to beat Blues 1–0 at Villa Park thanks to a disputed penalty from James Milner in the 82nd minute. This was the 3rd time in 4 derbies that Villa had scored the winning goal in the final 10 minutes of the game. Villa also possess the record of six straight wins from 1987 to 1993, including five cup matches. This record was then achieved in the Premier League after Villa beat Blues 1–0 on 25 April 2010, setting a record of six straight league wins from 2005 to 2010. The record was finally ended at the next derby match on 31 October 2010, which resulted in a 0–0 draw at Villa Park. The return match at St Andrew's also ended in a draw, with it finishing 1–1.
In those games in October and December 2010 where Aston Villa played Birmingham City, at Villa Park and St Andrew's violence between the two sets of supporters and hooligan firms occurred, with many fans being arrested. In the first game, there were scenes of violence outside Villa Park and there were a small amount of arrests including a Birmingham City club chef. In the second of the two games after Blues had beaten Villa 2–1, Blues supporters came onto the pitch and confronted the visiting Villa fans, this resulted in flares, ripped out seats and other missiles being hurled by Villa fans into the Blues supporters, there were also flash points before and after the game including the attack on a Blues supporters pub by Villa hooligans, the events were described as a "warzone" by a supporter who attended the game. Birmingham City were later fined £40,000 by the Football Association for failing to control their fans.
On 10 April 2011, an episode of Police Academy UK, a TV show aired on BBC Three which documents overseas police officers' introduction to British crime and policing, was set in Birmingham and covered the violence that occurred at the game between Birmingham City and Aston Villa on 1 December 2010.
On 17 June 2011, Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish swapped Blues for Villa in a move that shocked the football world. The reaction from both sets of supporters was one of anger. Blues supporters were angry at McLeish, who guided them to only their second ever major trophy win in February 2011, for betraying them to join bitter rivals Villa, and Villa fans were unhappy with the appointment of a manager that had got Blues relegated twice in four seasons, and was perceived to play a negative style of football; that he came from Blues only served to rub salt into the wound of the board making such an unambitious and negative appointment. Several hundred Villa supporters protested at Villa Park when it emerged that Villa owner Randy Lerner has begun talks with McLeish. McLeish received death threats from followers of both teams following his appointment as Aston Villa manager. This controversial move only increased tension and hostility between the players, supporters and owners of both clubs even more as Blues directors threatened legal action against Villa for allegedly "tapping up" McLeish, who resigned as Blues manager on 12 June 2011, while he was still under contract at Birmingham City. McLeish's appointment marked the first time in history that a manager had moved directly from Birmingham City to Aston Villa. On 14 May 2012, one day after the 2011–12 Premier League season ended, McLeish was sacked as Villa manager after a massively disappointing one season in charge.