Bruce refuses to give up fight for Premiership survival

Aston Villa 3 Birmingham 1

Two goals from Czech international Milan Baros enabled Villa to complete the double over their local rivals and leave them in the bottom three with just four games remaining.

To make matters worse, central defender Matthew Upson could be out of action for several months amid fears that he ruptured his Achilles tendon during the warm up at Villa Park.

The former Arsenal player has been taken to hospital for a scan and, although the full extent of the injury will not be known for 24 hours, Bruce is already fearing the worst.

Bruce said: "We fear a rupture of his Achilles. That could leave him out for a long time although we don't want to speculate at this juncture. He has gone to hospital for a scan."

In addition midfielder David Dunn limped out of the action with a calf injury early in the first half to compound the misery of a reversal which leaves Blues three points adrift of Portsmouth.

Bruce said: "We've got four games left and we aren't going to give up the ghost. We have given ourselves a fighting chance with the way we performed in the previous three games and the lads gave everything today as well.

"We are still in the fight. We have another game on Wednesday and we have to try and get a result against Blackburn.

"Portsmouth are in the driving seat. They have had an incredible run although playing half-strength sides like West Ham, Arsenal and Middlesbrough helps them."

Bruce added: "We didn't want half time to arrive. After we had scored our equaliser we had our best spell of the game. There were a couple of opportunities which didn't quite fall for us. I was also unhappy with their first goal. There was a foot up from James Milner who nearly kicked Mat Sadler's head off and Kevin Phillips was offside. In derbies you need a bit of luck with things like that which went Villa's way on this occasion."

Villa manager David O'Leary has his sights set on a strong finish to the season after finally banishing any lingering thoughts of his side being dragged into the relegation battle.

But the Villa boss is hoping that Birmingham, along with West Brom, somehow survive in the top flight.

He said: "I don't want anyone to go down. I like Steve Bruce and Bryan Robson. I'd be happy if Wolves came up as well for the sake of the area.

"But I'm delighted today for the fans and the players. We have taken 10 points from 12 in the derby games this season and that is a good return especially as in general we have drawn too many games.

"Now I want us to finish the season as high up the Premiership as possible. I want to catch a few teams ahead of us in these next four games."

Opta Fact: Chris Sutton's goal was his first in the Premiership since October 1999.Opta Fact: Birmingham have conceded more goals in the opening 15 minutes of games than any other team - 11.

ASTON VILLA: Sorensen, Hughes, Ridgewell, Cahill, Samuel, Milner (Agbonlahor 85), McCann, Davis (Gardner 24), Barry, Baros, Phillips (Angel 59).

BIRMINGHAM: Maik Taylor, Tebily, Cunningham (Lazaridis 79), Sadler, Martin Taylor, Pennant, Butt, Johnson, Dunn (Forssell 17), Heskey, Sutton.

Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).