FULL TIME: Aston Villa 1-0 Birmingham City
Villa see the final seconds out without fuss. And the whistle goes! They earn the Birmingham bragging rights, and a place in the fourth round. Villa Park erupts! Blues gave it a good go, but they were outclassed by Villa in the second half, with substitutes Grealish and Ayew a huge influence. Though it was Gestede who was the goalscoring hero. He milks the applause rolling down in waves from the Holte End. A decent night’s entertainment, all in all. Congratulations to Villa, and commiserations to Blues. Hope it’s not another four-and-a-half years until the next Second City Derby.
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90 min +3: Toral breaks into space down the right, but his low cross into the box is intercepted by Westwood. For a second, Birmingham had a little hope there. But it’s gone.
90 min +2: Grealish faffs around down by the left-hand corner flag. The clock is Villa’s friend, but Grealish isn’t taking any risks with hopeful crosses into the area.
90 min +1: Toral chases a long, hopeful punt down the inside-right channel. Guzan comes out to claim. There’s a light and accidental clattering. Cue both players getting up in each other’s grille. But a second-city stramash fails to break out. This match has been played in a good spirit.
90 min: Villa do the short-corner routine, wasting the final regulation minute of the 90. But there will be four additional ones coming right up.
89 min: It’s fair to say that Villa Park is a cauldron of tension at the moment. Ayew - who has been excellent since coming on at half time - relieves a bit of the pressure by twinkling down the right and winning a corner.
87 min: Ayew jigs in from the right, a slow-motion slalom. He works space to shoot, but only weakly, his shovel towards the top right from 12 yards clawed out by Kuszczak. The resulting corner comes to naught.
86 min: Solomon-Otabor has a look from distance, but it’s never bothering Guzan in the Villa goal. Birmingham are not going to die wondering. They’re going for this.
84 min: Chances at both ends. First Ayew busies himself down the right. Reaching the byline, he pulls back for Westwood, whose effort aimed for the bottom left goes wide. In the middle, Gestede should have redirected the ball goalwards. Sinclair could also have turned it in by the post. But no. Then Blues go up the other end, but Solomon-Otabor takes a fresh-air swipe at a ball dropping by the right-hand post.
81 min: Blues swap Maghuma and Donaldson with Solomon-Otabor and Brock-Madsen.
80 min: Grealish is in space down the left. He loops long for Ayew, who fizzes the ball back towards the bottom left. It flies wide, and Grealish isn’t far away from poking into an empty net. But he can’t connect.
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79 min: Sinclair takes the free kick, and loops it towards the bottom left. Kuszczak tips it round the post. Nothing comes from the corner, other than a silly booking for Westwood as he opts not to return the ball for a goal kick.
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78 min: Grealish hares into space in the Birmingham half, straight down the middle. Morrison hauls him back cynically. There’s a covering defender, so it’s only a booking. But a free kick, 30 yards out. It nearly kicks off between Morrison and Grealish in a second-phase stramash, but the referee, clearly sick and tired of their nonsense, simply reminds these grown men how old they are, and everyone calms down quickly.
76 min: Guzan, having gone in bravely to smother, takes the opportunity of a breather and a mop down with the magic sponge.
74 min: Yes, Villa are nervous all right. And Birmingham should be level. Gray holds possession 30 yards from goal, drawing the Villa back line towards him. He then flicks a perfect pass down the inside-right channel to release Maghuma into the area. He’s one on one with Guzan, and has to level this match. But his attempt to flick one under Guzan and into the bottom left doesn’t come off, and the keeper is able to smother. He has the good grace to hold his head in his hands and look pained.
73 min: Villa are sitting back a bit now, betraying the nerves of an out-of-form team. A ball bounces down the right wing and nearly foxes Amavi, who is swarmed by Maghuma and Donaldson. The full back manages to clear, but for a second it looked like two Blues would be bearing down on goal.
71 min: Kieftenbeld concedes a needless corner down the left. Westwood hangs it in high, but Kuszczak, at full stretch, fingertips the ball away from danger.
70 min: Gray sashays in from the right but his effort is weak and wide right. Birmingham aren’t out of this by any means, with enough holes appearing in the Villa defence to give them succour.
68 min: Grealish goes dancing into the area from the left. Ball-on-string control. He reaches the edge of the six-yard box, the angle always tight. Kuszczak comes out with his feet, and gets a little touch to the ball. A nanosecond later, and that would have been a penalty, for he’d have missed the ball and clattered Grealish. He’s doubly fortunate, because Villa don’t get the corner they deserve. Grealish considers going apoplectic, but calms down quickly enough.
67 min: Toral is into the action quickly, chasing after a deft flick down the right touchline by Donaldson. But Richards, who is in proper No Prisoners mode tonight, is over quickly to put a stop to his gallop.
65 min: Davis is replaced by the 20-year-old Spaniard Jon Toral, on loan from Arsenal.
64 min: Villa Park is, as you’d imagine, bouncing.
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GOAL! Aston Villa 1-0 Birmingham City (Gestede 62)
Grealish, busy as ever, slides a pass down the left for Amavi, who whips a high ball towards the penalty spot. Gestede leaps and crashes a brilliant header into the left-hand portion of the net, Kuszczak with no chance! That’s a simple but sweet move. Much credit to Grealish for upping the tempo for Villa.
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61 min: Ayew slides in aggressively on Maghuma. Davis lunges in on Ayew. Both should be booked. Neither are.
60 min: Corner for Birmingham down the right. A waste of time. But the away side are beginning to get a foothold again.
58 min: A lot of Villa passes in the middle of the park. Birmingham holding their shape. A strange incident as Villa pump it long. Grounds attempts to head back to Kuszczak, but accidentally heads sideways towards Gestede, lurking on the penalty spot. He’d have been clear hand the ball not accidentally pinged off Spector’s head and in the direction Grounds had been hoping for in the first place, into the arms of his keeper.
55 min: A rare second-half foray upfield for Birmingham. Maghuma slaloms down the inside-right channel and breaks into the box, then squares low for Donaldson. But the ball’s behind his partner, and Villa clear. The atmosphere had gotten subdued before the half-time whistle, but it’s right back up to fever pitch now.
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53 min: This is all Villa right now. Birmingham penned back. Veretout slides a beautiful pass down the right wing to release Amavi into space. Amavi curls a cross into the box. Sinclair, on the penalty spot, connects with his head but can only flash the ball wide left. Much, much better from the home side. Birmingham aren’t quite hanging on - they’re defending resolutely enough, and aren’t panicking under the pressure - but they are second best right now.
51 min: Villa have come out with their tails up, a new intensity. Grealish is wandering around at pace, gesticulating a lot. Come on, come on, come on. He whips a ball in from the left, aimed for Gestede but breaking to the feet of Sinclair, who scoops a shot over the bar from six yards. What a miss, albeit under pressure. Villa are gifted a corner they don’t deserve. Birmingham mop it up.
49 min: That Villa change has seen Bacuna, who had been operating in the midfield, drop back to right back. Richards and Clark are the new central defensive partnership. Ayew makes good down the left and wins a corner. The set piece is wasted by Westwood.
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47 min: Gray is flipped into the air as he perambulates down the left. Free kick, and he’ll take it himself. Like Gleeson’s witless effort earlier, it’s way too high, allowing Guzan to claim under no pressure, despite the box having been loaded.
And we're off again!
Villa make a double change. Agbonlahor and Lescott off, Grealish and Ayew on. Agbonlahor was feeling his hamstring, but Lescott is a victim of the tactical hook, Villa adding to their attacking mix.
Half-time advertisement:
“This is the view that nearly took my breath away.” The word “nearly” doing an awful lot of work there, baby.
HALF TIME: Aston Villa 0-0 Birmingham City
And that’s that for the first half. Both teams depart to a chorus of boos. The match seriously tailed off after a breezy opening 15 minutes, but I strongly suspect that’s not the point of the jeering. The boos are, just because. Nevertheless, this is a cup tie, which means the second half is almost certainly going to jangle the nerves. And there’s the promise of extra time and penalty kicks too. No flipping!
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45 min +1: Nope! He looks for the top-left corner of the goal, but only finds the top-left corner of the stand.
45 min: Kieftenbeld sends Clark tumbling over, 25 yards from the Birmingham goal, just to the left. A chance for Bacuna, standing over the resulting free kick, to send Villa into the changing rooms on a high.
44 min: Bacuna attempts to recreate David Beckham’s 1996 goal for Manchester United against Wimbledon. Same position on the pitch. Not the same result, however. Kuszczak, who had been off his line, would have been in position to gather on the line had the effort been on target. Which it wasn’t, spinning off to the right. Still, top marks for ambition, and it was all entertaining enough.
43 min: What a day for Volkswagen, though.
41 min: Clark is booked for a fairly agricultural slide on Donaldson as the Birmingham forward skedaddles down the right. The free kick is lifted into the Villa box. Richards heads clear. Maghuma, 25 yards out, attempts to return with a casual volley, but gets it all wrong.
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39 min: Half chances at either end. Maghuma cuts in from the right and looks to curl one into the top left. It’s not far wide. Then Westwood finds a little space on the right-hand corner of the Birmingham box, trying to poke a riser into the top-right. Not quite enough power on it.
38 min: A free kick for Birmingham deep in Villa territory, down the left. Blues load the box. Gleeson takes, and hoicks it high enough for Guzan to claim it unchallenged. What a waste.
35 min: Gray bursts into space in the Villa half, but plays the wrong pass with Donaldson in acres and the home side light at the back. Then down the other end, Bacuna hits a hot cross straight through the area from the right. Ever feel life is passing you by? “I’m sitting in Amsterdam watching Bayern v Wolfsburg,” writes Anthony O Connell. “Wolfsburg were winning 1-0. They are now 5-1 down and Robert Lewandowski has scored five goals in nine minutes. The fifth is an absolute belter!” Wolfsburg are sponsored by Volkswagen, aren’t they? A whole lot of karma going on there.
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32 min: Lescott, on the halfway line and under no pressure whatsoever, nearly concedes a corner with a lumpen backpass. Guzan gathers. It’s difficult to decide what was worse then: the execution of the backpass, or the cripplingly unambitious idea in the first place.
31 min: Maghuma rakes a pass down the inside-right channel, having robbed a dithering Lescott. Donaldson scampers after it, and should get a shot away as he strides into the area. But he delays, then with the opportunity closed down, faffs around before losing control. Villa were extremely exposed then.
29 min: Sinclair busies himself and slips the ball down the inside-right channel for Agbonlahor, who takes a step into the area before pulling a dismal effort across the face of goal and out of play well to the left of the target.
28 min: All a bit scrappy now. Birmingham will be perfectly happy with the way things are going. Villa are a long way from coherence. The home support is becoming subdued as a result.
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26 min: Bacuna with a long throw into Blues’ box from the right. Westwood tries to guide a header goalwards from a position on the right-hand corner of the area, but he’s never going to power anything in from there. Kuszczak gathers in the insouciant style.
23 min: Westwood takes a free kick in the centre circle. Villa have loaded the box. He finds the head of Gestde, who heads down and wide right of the target from the edge of the area. Far too far out to cause any damage. Grounds and Kuszczak usher the ball out of play for a goal kick.
22 min: Agbonlahor is booked for a late slide on Grounds, who was looking to power off down the left wing. That was a simple decision for the referee.
21 min: Grounds, under no pressure whatsoever from Agbonlahor down the right, concedes a corner anyway. Westwood hoicks it long. Richards rises to meet it with a header 12 yards out, level with the left-hand post. But it’s an aimless and weak effort, squirting off to the right.
19 min: Gleeson flicks Donaldson free down the inside-left channel. Guzan is well off his line. Donaldson tries to flick one over the keeper and into the top right. But there’s not enough juice on the effort, and Guzan claims it with ease. Oh, and now the flag’s up anyway. But there are spaces in this Villa defence. Can Birmingham take advantage?
18 min: Gray is sent scampering into acres down the right. His low cross is hacked out of the Villa box by Clark, but only to Kieftenbeld, who has a dig from 25 yards. It dribbles apologetically wide left of goal, and he was penalised for controlling with his hand anyway.
17 min: Great work by Amavi down the left wing, winning a ball he never should have won, then powering along the touchline. Gestade is in the middle yearning for a good cross, but Amavi’s delivery is woeful, blootered high and deep into the stand behind the goal.
14 min: It’s been frantic, but there’s a bit of a lull. Birmingham stroke it around the back awhile. The Championship side are playing with poise and confidence. They look calm and in control, despite the pressure-cooker atmosphere in Villa Park tonight.
11 min: Westwood slides a stunning pass down the right to release Bacuna into space. Bacuna wheechs a low ball into the area. Agbonlahor slides in, but can’t quite make contact. Kuszczak gathers, and receives a hoof in the nadgers for his troubles. No harm meant. A complete accident. Everyone’s soon up and about. But that was a lovely, crisp, simple move from the Villa.
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9 min: This is a wonderfully open, end-to-end game. Sinclair busies himself in the Birmingham box, to the left. A shot that’s blocked. The ball rolls left to right, nearly falling to Gestede, but he can’t get a shot away from six yards. Kuszczak comes out to gather, but doesn’t. Eventually Grounds bustles the ball away from danger. So close to the opener. Then Gray hassles Lescott into the concession of a cheap corner out on the left. The set piece comes to nothing.
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8 min: Gray aims for the top right, but succeeds only in lifting the gentlest of wafts up and down and into Guzan’s grateful arms.
7 min: Birmingham are pinging the ball around nicely, and Villa look anxious. Maghuma has his back to goal, just outside the Villa box to the right. Lescott charges in and shoves him over. Free kick. Lescott can have no complaints, though he argues the toss anyway. This is a set piece in a very dangerous position.
5 min: Donaldson gets the better of Richards after being clattered by him once again. The ball breaks down the inside-right channel for Maghoma, who is in a little space on the edge of the area. He takes a touch inside the box, then whistles a low shot inches wide of the left-hand post. Guzan wasn’t getting down to that had it been on target. Birmingham could - it’s not quite a “should” - be ahead.
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3 min: Westwood curls a cross in from the right. Gestede, on the edge of the Birmingham D, chests down and attempts to lash the ball into the bottom-left corner. It’s a weak effort, and well wide left. Birmingham go up the other end, Gleeson spraying a delightful ball down the left flank to release Gray into a little space. Gray jinks and twists, and he’s got friends in the middle, but his high cross is all over the place, and flies harmlessly behind the goal. A nice open start, though.
2 min: The first big challenge of the evening, a power shoulder from Richards into the back of Donaldson. CLATTER. Play on. There, that’s set a tone.
And we're off!
Birmingham get the ball rolling. They’ll be kicking towards the Holte End in this first half. Bedlam, bedlam, bedlam. This is a stunning atmosphere.
The teams are out! And the bedlam is ON. Aston Villa are wearing their famous claret-and-blue shirts. Birmingham are in their equally renowned blue, with white diagonal sash across their chest. They’ve got a lovely retro BCFC badge going on this year. Rangers might want a word. Rowett, incidentally, is continuing to play down his team’s chances. “They’re playing at a higher level than us,” he’s told battered broadcaster Sky. “They spent £50m in the summer to our £500,000 and a bag of crisps.” We’ll be off in a minute!
Marvellous entertainment on Sky Sports, as a couple of fans have balanced a step ladder outside the broadcaster’s box, shimmied up it, and started battering the window with some vigour. They’re doing it for you, folks. I should stress that we can’t actually see the aforementioned ladder, but it’s been referenced by the Sky presenter (Dave? Simon? Chris?) who has a full view of the incident and is peering out of the window while wearing a fixed smile that doesn’t quite mask his understandable concern. How did they smuggle a ladder into the ground? That’s showing an admirable dedication to the art of TV criticism.
So Tim Sherwood drops Jack Grealish to the bench, while Rudy Gestede makes his third start in a Villa shirt. Meanwhile for Birmingham, Jacques Maghoma comes into the side, part of a three-man attack alongside Clayton Donaldson and Demarai Gray. “Let’s hope tonight’s game lives up to this,” writes Jim Powell, with reference to some second-city Savagery of times past. And he’s writing that as a Birmingham supporter! Mind you, the 0-2 result in favour of Blues that day - it was one of The Peter Enckelman Matches - has probably allowed their fans to see the bigger picture regarding this particular skirmish and enjoy it like everyone else.
The teams
Aston Villa: Guzan, Bacuna, Richards, Lescott, Amavi, Veretout, Clark, Westwood, Gestede, Agbonlahor, Sinclair.
Subs: Bunn, Hutton, Richardson, Ayew, Sanchez, Gil, Grealish.
Birmingham City: Kuszczak, Caddis, Spector, Morrison, Grounds, Gleeson, Kieftenbeld, Davis, Gray, Maghoma, Donaldson.
Subs: Legzdins, Robinson, Solomon-Otabor, Toral, Shinnie, Lowry, Brock-Madsen.
Referee: Robert Madley (West Yorkshire)
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Good evening!
It’s been the best part of five years since the last Second City derby. That’s an awful lot of waiting and anticipating, so Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood’s prediction of “blood and thunder” may not be too far off the mark. Birmingham City boss Gary Rowett is meanwhile milking his side’s status as underdogs. “There’s more pressure on them ... we can go a little bit freer.” Ah! Free! Free can mean anything in football. Free scoring. The freedom to express oneself artistically. A freely swung haymaker. The possibilities are endless as the evening stretches out ahead.
On the one hand, Villa have enjoyed the best of the recent exchanges between the two clubs. Let’s take the last ten years as our sample. Villa have won six of the nine derbies contested during that period. They’ve drawn two of the other three. And they’ve not conceded a goal at Villa Park against Blues for 203 minutes. But would Birmingham swap their solitary win during that decade for Villa’s superior record? Not likely! For that sole triumph - a 2-1 victory in December 2010 - was one of the staging posts en route to their famous 2011 League Cup success. Quality trumping quantity in this instance (though in the interests of balance, Villa fans are permitted to console themselves with the 5-1 thumping of Blues in 2008).
Good luck in calling tonight’s match. Villa - at home, and members of the Premier League - are understandably favourites. But they’re struggling for form: their last four matches have seen them lose to Leicester City and West Bromwich Albion, fail to beat Sunderland, and scrape past Notts County in the previous round of this pot. Birmingham meanwhile are upwardly mobile after a couple of years faffing around the lower reaches of the Championship, having started the season strongly, though they too have hit a rough patch of form lately, losing to Nottingham Forest and drawing with Ipswich. But it’s a derby, and where does the form book go in derbies? That’s right! Out the window, with extreme prejudice! This could be a cracker. It promises blood. It promises thunder. It’s on!
Kick off: 7.45pm in Witton, 7.45pm in Bordesley.
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