Villa get a dose of the Blues

Birmingham 3 Aston Villa 0

The Villa players were booed from all corners of the ground during the warm-up as a capacity crowd of nearly 30,000 revved up for the first meeting in the top flight between these two bitter rivals for 16 years.

With such intensity, it was not surprising the match kicked off at full throttle. What was more unexpected was the quality on show as both sides matched commitment with skill.