Aston Villa Down Blues: The City Is Ours

Aston Villa Football Club celebrated a narrow victory over arch-rivals Birmingham City. Gabby Agbonlahor’s (!) second-half strike secured all three points at home.

Just something about Gabby Agbonlahor and City, huh? For the third time in his career, Gabriel freakin’ Agbonlahor scores the match-winner in The Second City Derby. The first of which occurred nearly one decade ago:

The match was quite innocuous in the first-half, with neither team settling into a definitive rhythm. Steve Bruce set Villa up in a firm 4-1-4-1 with Mile Jedinak anchoring.

Johnstone; Hutton, Chester (c), Baker, Taylor; Jedinak; Adomah, Bacuna, Lansbury, Grealish; Hogan.

For a derby, not much occurred in the way of dirty play. Only three yellow cards were issued – one of which went to Gabby, and another to City defender Paul Robinson in the dying embers of extra-time.

As a whole, Aston Villa did not play particularly well. The claret and blues completed just 60% of their passes on the afternoon, compiling one shot on target – Agbonlahor’s winner.

Video of the goal is shown below: Fair warning, it was quite the game of pinball in the box.

Aston Villa may very well have doomed Birmingham City to League One. The Blues, led by Harry Redknapp, sit just two points above the drop zone. As of right now, it is a three-way fight against the final relegation spot.

Blackburn Rovers remain in the 22nd-place. Blues and Nottingham Forest sit two and three points away, respectively. Of the three, Birmingham holds the worst goal differential.

Next: Ranking The Five Best Villa U-20 Stars

Villa finish the season against the aforementioned Blackburn Rovers, before a finale against likely-league champions, Brighton & Hove Albion, at home.

Jack Grealish proudly proclaimed, “The city is ours.”