This week’s Aston Villa vs Birmingham City League Cup fixture is the first time the Second City Derby has been played since My Old Man Said (MOMS) has been in existence.
The News Street Station reopening fittingly marks the welcome return of the derby, which many of the youngest generation of Villans might not have witnessed yet. It’ll certainly provide a footballing occasion to lift both sets of fans. Bar their Wembley adventures last season, Villa’s fortunes have been pretty bleak since their last meeting with the Blues, including a season under Alex McLeish. The Blues despite winning the League Cup under McLeish have failed to reach the Premier League since McLeish relegated them before taking the Villa job. Don’t expect Alex McLeish to be the guest of honour on Tuesday night.
Current Run
The Blues though are three games unbeaten against Villa in their most recent meetings, including a quarter-final triumph in the League Cup in December 2010, which became better known for events off the field.
If recent history is anything to go by, the Blues may fancy continuing their run, as results between the two teams seem to happen in waves. Before their unbeaten trio of games, the Blues lost to Villa a record six times on the trot. Before that, when the Blues returned to the top flight in the 2002/2003 after being AWOL for a while, they were unbeaten against Villa for their first six games (4 wins 2 draws) in the Premier League.
Aston Villa vs Birmingham City head-to-head
Going into the game Villa will hoping to improve on their 49.12% win ratio at Villa Park against the Blues in all meetings. Certainly a win will help buck Sherwood’s much mooted win ratio sliding any further after Villa have suffered four loses in the season’s opening six league games.
The Blues in contrast have been in decent early season form and look to be in the hunt for the Championship play-off places based on current form.
While this game isn’t make-or-break by any means for Sherwood, a loss will certainly dent his popularity with fans. A win though will be a moral boost and with key players due to return in the next week or so, it should to enable him to kick-start Villa’s season in earnest. UTV
Follow MOMS on Instagram – myoldmansaid
Follow MOMS on Twitter – oldmansaid
Picture originally appeared on MOMS two years ago
What I find funny is that really, no-one cared *that* much about Saturdays game (other than the loss of three points) despite attempts by Sky International to bill it as the “WM Derby”, what with there being more than a hint of Villa players gearing down in order not to get injured/tired and risk missing tomorrow night. Don’t think I am alone in saying that every one of us would swap Saturday’s loss against whoever-we-were-playing-I-forget-now, for a sweet victory tomorrow a bit.