Blues Do It Again - Villa 1 BIRMINGHAM CITY 2

By Aydan Anderson
December 13 2004

Birmingham made it five derby day encounters without a defeat by wrapping up a third victory against Aston Villa. Clinton Morrison and David Dunn got the blues off to a dream start with two goals inside 20 minutes.

Aston Villa 1 Birmingham City 2

Blues got their third win of the season under their belts with a stunning victory of fierce rivals Aston Villa in another memorable Brummie Derby Day clash.

The blues fans will remember this game for a long time to come after being written off by the media, football pundits, villa fans and even some members of the St Andrews faithful before kick off. But instead of rolling over and letting villa extend their unbeaten home record the blues had the game won inside twenty minutes.

Blues bought Darren Carter, Clinton Morrison, Olivier Tebilly and Stan Lazaridis back into the team following the dissapointing display at Highbury a week before.

In an incredible start to the game Blues came out all guns blazing and Upson missed with a free header after just a few minutes. Blues continued to press and a long ball forward was flicked on by Emile Heskey into the path of Clinton Morrison, who out muscled Mark Delaney before forcing the ball into the net thanks to another gift from a villa keeper.

Morrisons shot seemed to be going safely into Thomas Sorenson's hands until the ball bounced up and the big Danish keeper let it slip through his arms into the net. The keeper seemed to try and palm the ball down to the floor but instead managed to palm it upwards and over hiself into the villa goal.

Cue Morrisons wild celebrations in front of the Doug Ellis Stand as he dived into the blues dugout to celebrate with Dwight Yorke.

With the villa fans still recovering from the early shock, blues carved out another opening. Morrison brought the ball down and held it up before threading it wide to Damien Johnson. Johnson skipped past J Lloyd Samuel and pulled the ball back for the incoming David Dunn to side foot into the villa net in front of the Holte End.

Blues should have been five up before half time with David Dunn having a good effort saved and putting one wide and Emile Heskey striking the villa post. But the away team were content with a 2-0 lead going into half time and were cheered from the pitch like heroes by the delighted away following.

Villa came out for the second half a different team pushing forward at every oppotunity and Carlton Cole had a decent effort easily saved by Maik Taylor. Blues defended in numbers and denied Villa any clear scoring oppotunitys.

The home team did have two goals rightly disallowed, one for an offside and one because Gareth Barry punched the ball past Taylor. Apart from these two scares Villa showed very little going forward although they had all the possession. Superb defending by Upson and Cunningham led to Villa being limited to poor 30 yard efforts by Olof Mellberg.

With Robbie Savage pulling the strings in midfield, Emile Heskey's battling display upfront and some magnificent defending by everyone in the royal blue shirt there was never any real signs of letting villa back into the game.

Villa though did manage a late goal, which flattered the home team, when Gareth Barry got away from Olivier Tebilly and smashed the ball past Maik Taylor. But the final whistle went just a minute or so later and was greeted by roars of delight from the travelling support. With the players joining in the celebrations in the North Stand it was another memorable afternoon at Villa Park for the travelling support. The players left the pitch to a chorus of Keep Right On before the blues fans departed the stadium to the sound of Youll Never Beat The Blues.