Birmingham 0-1 Aston Villa: Agbonlahor Settles Brum Derby

The 'second city derby' has always been one of the highlights of the season, and few recent games between the two have been without controversy. Form usually goes out the window on any derby day and although the Premier League record between these two was all square coming into the game, Villa had beaten their city rivals on the last four occasions, the most recent a 5-1 thumping back in April 2008 that went a long way to condemning Birmingham to relegation that season.

Aston Villa fielded a brand new back four, with three new debutants in Stephan Warnock, James Collins and Richard Dunne with Carlos Culler switching to right-back in favour of Habib Beye. England hero Emile Heskey would once again have settle for a place on the bench as Gabriel Agbonlahor was given the nod upfront. For Birmingham they gave a debut to Sunderland loanee Teemu Tainio, who slotted in a right-back for the injured Stephen Carr. Lee Carsley was surprisingly left out in favour of former Villa trainee Keith Fahey.

Despite a typical derby atmosphere inside St Andrews, it was a rather sedate start from both teams. The first shot in anger come from the visitors, and the in-form James Milner. Agbonlahor showed great strength on the left flank, muscling out Tainio and slipping in Milner just inside the box. But the England midfielder draggred his shot wide of Joe Hart’s left-hand post.

Five minutes later Birmingham’s Gary O’Conner had a shot blocked by Warknock that hits the former Blackburn defender’s arm but Birmingham’s appeal for the spot-kick is waved away by referee Howard Webb. Replay’s show that Warknock could do very little to get out the way, as the ball hit him as he was falling whilst trying to stop the chance.

The hosts continued with the first sustained bit of pressure of the game and called Brad Friedel into action. O’Conner’s flick-on on the half-way line was met by a roaming Lee Bowyer who cut in from the right and hit a strike that Frediel palmed away. From the resulting corner, Fahey shot narrowly wide from the edge of the box.

Just before the poor first-half came to close Villa almost went head when Agbonlahor just missed a header from Milner’s cross, the ball flashing wide off Rodger Johnson. With the score goalless at half-time, Alex McLeish would have been the happier of the two managers.

Five minutes after the break, Howard Webb got his yellow card out for the first time as Steve Sidwell was booked for hauling down Sebastian Larsson. Lee Carsley, on for the injured James McFadden at half-time then went close with a curling shot from outside the box that Friedel stretched to save.

Both sides continued to cancel each other out and after a period of mis-placed passes and lack of goalmouth action, Martin O’Neil replaced Nigel Reo-Coker with John Carew and went 4-4-2 in a bid to win the game. Birmingham respond by bringing on Colombian Christian Benitez for O’Conner.

The formation switch seemed to breather new life into Villa and they began to take a foothold in the game. Sidewell’s header was saved at point-blank rage by Hart before Milner hit’s a shot from outside the box that Hart again pushed away.

Finally the break-through came for Aston Villa’s men six minutes from time. Ashley Young’s free-kick was floated in, Carew won the header and nodded it across for an unmarked Agbonlahor to power a header past Hart, to net his third goal in three games against Birmingham.

Birmingham rallied late on but it was Villa who nearly added a second with Carew and Agbonlahor wasting chances before the final whistle signalled Villa's fifth win in a row against their city rivals.

Ash Rose, Goal.com UK