Aston Villa 4 v Birmingham City 2 - EFL Championship

Aston Villa (2) 4

Jonathan Kodjia 37,
Jack Grealish 39,
Tammy Abraham 51 pen,
Alan Hutton 76
Birmingham City (1) 2
Lukas Jutkiewicz 28,
Kristian Pedersen 57
Attendance 41,200
inc. 2,100 away (full allocation)

Aston Villa:
Nyland, Hutton, Taylor, Chester, Tuanzebe, Whelan (Lansbury 69, Elmohamady 77)), Grealish, Hourihane, Adomah (Bolasie 65), Grealish, Kodjia, Abraham.
Subs not used: Bunn, Hogan, El Ghazi, O’Hare.
Birmingham City:
Camp, Colin, Harding, Morrison, Dean, Pedersen, Kieftenbeld, Craig Gardner (Lakin 77), Mahoney (Maghoma 66), Jutkiewicz (Bogle 89). Adams.
Subs not used: Trueman, Roberts, Dacres-Cogley, Lubala.

Ha ha, look at that... there's a retired Scottish international, wearing a Villa shirt, trundling towards Lee Camp's goal, from inside his own half; he's probably all giddy with excitement because it's his thirty fourth birthday this week and he's had a blood-rush to his head... I can't imagine that he's even got the stamina to get very far these days, let alone all the way into the final third of the Blues half; and besides, there are at least three or four opposition players who are well placed to stop him in his tracks.

Blimey, who would ever have thought that Craig Gardner would have been so benevolent, as to let the old lad get his hopes up by not upending Hutton and halting his run on the edge of the centre circle, with one of those trademark 'firm but (borderline) fair' tackles, that he's been dishing out to Jack Grealish all afternoon... apart from those few fleeting moments just before half time when the Villa number ten managed to avoid any kind of marking, by anyone whatsoever, before he dived, down by Camp's left hand post, to divert Albert Adomah's cross, that had just glanced off of Michael Morrison's head as he attempted to head the ball clear, into the back of the net, to give the home side the lead.

But moving forward in time again, Hutton was obviously bound to be getting a bit stiff legged and running out of puff, but as more Blues players stood off of him, probably figuring that he was about to get stitch and have to pull up any moment, he didn't... and as Maxime Colin made a token attempt to block his progress, Hutton changed tact to ghost past him and rolled the ball into the bottom of Blues net, beating Camp, who must've been expecting Colin to comfortably take the ball away from the home side's right back, with his usual aplomb.

With just fourteen minutes remaining, Hutton's unexpected input into this 'Second City' derby that had ebbed and flowed one way then the other until this point, meant that Dean Smith's side were heading into the closing stages of the game, with a 4-2 lead and the momentum on their side.
When Blues dominated the opening half a hour of the game, such a final outcome never looked even remotely possible, as Blues racked up a number of chances against their local rivals and Lukas Jutkiewicz continued his great scoring run by firing his side ahead in the twenty eighth minute, when he broke free of the scrum of players in the middle of Villa's area, to meet Connor Mahoney's right wing corner and drill an angled shot through Tammy Abraham's legs.

It was the very least that Garry Monk's team deserved, having already seen Che Adams, Harlee Dean and Jutkiewicz himself go close already.
But, this eventful tussle was turned completely on it's head, when within the space of three minutes Blues should've been two goals ahead. when Gardner blocked Grealish's attempted clearance and whipped a low cross behind the Villa defence that Adams met on the volley, beating Orjan Nyland all ends up but crashing the ball against the left hand upright.

That was a a real let off for the hosts, but they didn't dwell on it and countered very quickly instead, with Hutton clearing the ball forward to Adomah on the right who found Jonathan Kodija beyond the visitors defence and he lashed the ball just inside the left hand post from eight yards.
Seventy seconds later, Adomah got away on the right wing again and... well I've already mentioned Grealish's goal, so let's quickly skip past that bit.

On the stroke of half time, Gardner delivered an in-swinging free kick into the Villa six yard box towards Dean, who deceived everyone by letting the ball run, but Nyland dealt with it and the danger was averted.
Right at the start of the second half, Aghoma attacked the left of Blues defence and yet again got his cross away, but when found Grealish at the back post, this afternoon's programme cover star headed wide.

Mahoney was fouled by the Villa captain, James Chester, as he advanced towards the home side's area on the right. Subsequently, Mahoney took the resulting free kick himself and it took a heavy deflection off Chester and looped air-bound off of him and spun away at the expense of a corner. The Blues followers responded enthusiastically, but were collectively gobsmacked when the referee, Rob Jones, awarded a goal kick.

Hmm, there wouldn't be a game without match officials and everybody makes mistakes sometimes, and err... these things balance themselves out over the course of a season etc. etc. But how the funking hell did Mr Jones and his assistants not see what happened there?
Wes Harding was making his first start for Blues since the final game of last season, when they avoided relegation by beating Fuham, but he understandably looked short of match practice, filling in at left back, while Kristian Pedersen was pushed forward to bolster a midfield that was lacking Jota and Gary Gardner... and until the final twenty four minutes, Jacques Maghoma too, who is still recovering from an injury.

Harding's quite apparent lack of sharpness, was exploited once more as Aghoma put another cross in from the right towards Abraham, who couldn't get a clear shot on goal because Morrison had got between the Villa number eighteen and the ball, so Abraham quite deliberately shoved Morrison out of the way, tried to bring the ball down and then went to ground as the Blues captain held his arm out across his assailant. No wonder this lot are nicknamed the Villans (their spelling, not mine).
The referee blew up, seemingly for the foul on Morrison, but actually pointed to the spot and awarded a penalty to the hosts, which Abraham then had the temerity and brass neck to score from. I've seen the slow time replay before typing up my observations and think that the sooner that the much maligned VAR is introduced to Championship matches.

From my position of (nothing like) complete neutrality, I  feel compelled to ask, onlysemi-impartially of course: are your effing eyes painted on referee!!??
But just before the hour, Adams showed good feet through the right channel, from Mahoney's knock forward, and picked out Pedersen with a sideways knock, who netted Blues second of the afternoon and set up a grandstand finish.
Well, he almost did anyway, until Hutton roamed forward at a leisurely pace and scored the aforementioned fourth goal. The 'Scottish Cafu' as some of the home fans have dubbed him, was, ironically, surplus to requirements at Villa Park and being nudged towards the exit door on more than one occasion in recent times, but sadly for Blues fans, he never quite found his way out of it.

Mahoney flashed an angled shot wide of the left hand upright from Jutkiewicz's knock down, while Jutkiewicz himself got the ball caught under his feet on the edge of Villa's area and could only snatch at his shot, which hit Alex Tuanzebe. And moments later the visitors prolific number ten was booked, when his frustration got the better of him and he clattered into the same player. Although to be fair, he had already been walking on thin ice with the referee, given a couple of other earlier transgressions, both on and off the ball..

Camp gathered a cross from Conor Hourihane safely and then whacked a long clearance into the home side's half with just three minutes remaining, but none of his teammates were anyway in the vicinity and the as three Villa defenders passed it around themselves, it was a moment that was indicative to how a game that had started so promisingly for Birmingham was heading towards an unsteady conclusion.

Maikel Kieftenbeld picked up a yellow card in stoppage time, for roughing Grealish up (again) with a hefty challenge, which is precisely what he'd done inside the first minute too, sans the caution... and that was that.
Blues had their moments and things could've been a whole lot different for the sake of a few near misses finding the target instead... and though Villa looked comfortable in spells, particularly in the second half, I think that even their most ardent of fans, would have to concede, that they got the rub of the green with a couple of the pivotal refereeing decisions today.
FT: Aston Villa 4 v Birmingham City 2

By virtue of their win, Villa now climb up to eighth in the Championship, three points ahead of Blues and just four away from the play off positions... and though Garry Monk's side remain in twelfth place, as the season picks up pace towards it's halfway point, surely that in itself counts for something following their last couple of turbulent campaigns, especially when you take the transfer embargo and spending cap that they're operating under at this present time into account.

The Villans, who are desperately trying to encourage greater use of their other nickname 'the Lions' more often in recent times, face a tricky midweek fixture, when the highly unpredictable Nottingham Forest visit Villa Park, while the injury depleted Blues will have to dust themselves down and get straight back at it, with a Wednesday night trip to Millwall (AKA 'the Lions') peering just over the horizon.