A derby between the two major clubs in the city of Birmingham- Aston Villa and Birmingham City, a derby not based on religion, or politics, or class, but a clan dispute, passed on from generation to generation.
A clash between two colours, clashes that involved many of the turf loyalties between criminal gangs such as the Peaky Blinders and the Whitehouse Street Gang in late 19th century Birmingham ending up overlapping over the first half of the 20th century into the city’s football culture scene. In football hooliganism terms, Villa’s Hardcore vs Birmingham City’s Zulu Warriors.
The first match was contested in 1879 between Aston Villa and Small Heath Alliance, later to be called Birmingham City which saw Small Heath win 1-0. The game was played at Small Heath’s Muntz Street ground, a ground described by the Aston Villa players as a pitch ‘only suitable for pot-holing.
Aston Villa won the first competitive contest between both clubs in the second round of the FA Cup at Wellington Road in 1887. Aston Villa beat their rivals 4-0 also winning their first league encounter in the First Division of the 1894-95 season 2-1.
Birmingham City were formed under the name Small Heath Alliance due to where the club was situated, in the Small Heath district of Birmingham. Aston Villa play their home games at Villa Park, which holds 42,682 fans while Birmingham City play their home games at St Andrew’s, which has a capacity of 29,409, both grounds are roughly separated by 3 miles. The derby is referred to as the Second City Derby due to Birmingham being the second biggest city in England.
The majority of football fans outside the city of Birmingham wouldn’t have heard of Paul Tait, but he was one of the few players to create history and it is for one of his two notable claims to fame. In the 103rd minute of the Auto Windscreens Shield final in April 1995, Tait scored a header to win the game for Birmingham City against Carlisle, it was the first ever golden goal scored at Wembley Stadium.
However, for most football fans in Birmingham, Tait is better known for what happened a few moments later as he ran towards the Birmingham City fans to celebrate, he removed his shirt to reveal a T-shirt bearing the words “Shit on the Villa”. After this comically brilliant moment as the FA pushed for a six-month ban, Tait’s defence was that he claimed that not only was the stunt unplanned but that it was “a private joke” , a private joke made in front of 76,000 fans and on live TV. After this action, Tait was relieved of two weeks wages, which is a small price to pay for lifetime membership of the Birmingham City faithful.
Birmingham City midfielder Maikel Kieftenbeld even compared the derby to his time in Holland playing for FC Groningen for when they would face rivals Heerenveen stating that “the Blues-Villa game is a different level” compared to the North Holland derby.
Washwood Heath Road, it is the old boundary dividing Birmingham and Ashton. The North features Erdington, Kingstanding, Perry Barr and Sutton Coldfield, areas all regarded as Aston Villa territory. However, the South features Small Heath, King’s Heath, Bordesley Green, Solihull, areas all regarded as Birmingham City territory. Two areas separated, one by claret and the other by blue and white.
Aston Villa currently lead the head-to-head record against their fierce rivals with 57 wins, 33 draws and 38 losses.
The latest meeting between both clubs was on the 10th March 2019 which saw Aston Villa clinch a narrow win after a goal from Birmingham born youngster Jack Grealish, the tie was played at St. Andrew’s stadium in front of a crowd of 26,631.
The Second City derby top goal scorer is Aston Villa legend Billy Walker with 11 goals, the prominent English footballer of the 20’s and 30’s. He is considered to be one of Aston Villa’s and England’s greatest ever players also seeing success as a manager after he won the FA Cup with both Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest. Walker joined Aston Villa in 1914 and stayed at Villa Park for the rest of his career, retiring in 1934. Sheffield born Walker ended up making 531 appearances for Villa between 1914 and 1934 scoring 244 goals along the way, 214 coming from 478 league matches. In March 2003, almost 40 years after his death, he was named by BBC Sport as the former player Aston Villa needed in their modern-day team who were at the time struggling to score goals that current season narrowly avoiding relegation from the Premier League.
Memorable moments
April 20, 2008, Aston Villa 5- 1 Birmingham City
Martin O’Neill’s side humiliated a jaded Birmingham City side as they humiliated their rivals 5-1 at Villa Park in front of 42,584 fans.
Braces from Ashley Young and John Carew rounded by a goal from Gabriel Agbonlahor which secured a fourth win in a row for Villa against their rivals. Martin O’Neill had won every game against their rivals, but this is the result that will stand out the most for Villa fans, a hugely talented side including the likes of Scott Carson, Ashley Young, Nigel Reo-Cooker, Stiliyan Petrov, Gareth Barry, John Carew and Gabriel Agbonlahor.
All players that led this Villa side to 6th in the Premier League after an impressive season, however, struggling in both domestic cup competitions being knocked out in the third round of both. Birmingham City, however, saw a very different side to their 2007/2008 campaign after finishing 19th in the league leading to relegation from the Premier League and back to the Championship after just one season at the top flight.
Football Related Violence
Derby clashes last season have already seen four separate pitch invasion incidents from four individual fans, it’s proven that both sets of fans are some of the most violent in the United Kingdom particularly Birmingham City fans who top the most arrests per season table pretty much every year.
October 2017, travelling Aston Villa fans were pulled off the streets of Birmingham one by one due to the numbers involved in violent conduct that day, West Midlands Police’s debrief also revealed that a group of masked Birmingham City fans attacked officers with metal bars, scaffold poles, breeze blocks and bottles, one fan had also smashed an officer round the head with a claw hammer. After a post-match probe, an extra 44 arrests were made.
Birmingham had placed 20,000 clappers around the home ends giving the opportunity to fans to throw them at any opportunity possible, the referee and fourth official had to stop the game on more than one occasion with Aston Villa players and the linesman all struck with various missiles, missiles included clappers, bottles and coins.
30 seats were also broken in the away end and a Birmingham City fan was detained after attempting to run the length of the pitch following the final whistle. Aston Villa fans were held for 90 minutes, while the rest of the fans were being picked up by police spotters while returning to the city with the behaviour of Villa fans being labelled as ‘exemplary’ and Birmingham fans ‘exceedingly poor’, police stated when they couldn’t get to Villa fans, they would start attacking the police immediately with a high level of force.
The meeting at Villa Park in February last year saw West Midlands Police make five arrests and a further 17 fans were ejected from the stadium.
The first sign of trouble came from a group of Birmingham City fans that were identified as a ‘high risk group’ by police spotters trying to board an Aston-bound train for home fans. The group were professionally identified by the police and stopped from boarding the train full of Aston Villa fans. While, at the ground three fans were ejected for vandalising a toilet while another was arrested for assaulting a steward in Holte Lower.
It was reported the incident started after fans refused to sit down in the Holte Lower despite several requests from stewards, while various other ejections from the stand continued through the game.
A second half Aston Villa goal saw a fan attempt to run onto the pitch from the North Stand, however, before he could reach the pitch, he was detained. Two stewards were injured during the incident, one suffering a head injury and the other with a knee injury. Two more home fans attempted to run onto the pitch but were arrested before reaching any players or away fans while another fan was arrested for throwing a missile at Birmingham City fans. Trouble continued after the game with fans clashing forcing the police to employ baton strikes and verbal commands.
The most recent football related violence incident involved Birmingham City fan Paul Mitchell and Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish, during their most recent meeting at St. Andrews on March 10, Mitchell was jailed for 14 weeks following the attack on the Aston Villa midfielder after running onto the pitch in the 10th minute punching the midfielder on the back of the head.
The 27-year-old admitted charges of assault and encroachment onto the pitch and was sentenced to 14 weeks at Birmingham Magistrates Court the following day, Mitchell was released 4 weeks into his prison term. Speaking after his release, Mitchell refused to apologize to Jack Grealish and even stated that “It was the best month of my life”. Most Birmingham City supporters presented their fury towards Mitchell over social media with many stating that he isn’t welcome back at the club and he isn’t a true supporter, with a very small minority finding it funny and claiming Mitchell as a ‘club legend’.
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