Villa likely to face FA charge

Aston Villa face being in hot water with the Football Association after crowd trouble marred Birmingham City’s 2-0 success in an explosive return second city derby at Villa Park.

Villa finished the game with nine men after leading scorer Dion Dublin – for a blatant headbutt on Blues midfielder Robbie Savage – and midfielder Joey Gudjonsson were sent off either side of second-half goals from Stan Lazaridis and Geoff Horsfield.

But of greater concern were the ugly scenes which followed on from the first meeting at St Andrews in September when City were fined £25,000 (€36,223) and warned to their future conduct by the FA.

Birmingham manager Steve Bruce confirmed that he was struck by a coin on the head even before the kick-off.

Fans also spilled onto the pitch in the second half with one supporter confronting the combative Savage in an aggressive and menacing manner – similar to when Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman received the same treatment at St Andrews.

Then after the second goal dozens of Villa followers tried to get to grips with the Blues fans seated in the Doug Ellis stand and had to be restrained by police and stewards.

It was throwback to the kind of menacing atmosphere that had looked to be disappearing from football and fans were arrested before and after the game outside of the stadium by police.

Bruce said: “It is great for us that we’ve got three teams in Birmingham in the Premiership this season but unfortunately these two derbies have been marred by crowd trouble.

“We’ve seen all that nonsense over the last 20 years and we thought it had disappeared and unfortunately it crept back in last night.

“There were bits and signs where you did worry what might happen although the vast majority behaved impeccably.

“We all know it is difficult to take, being beaten by your rivals, but the one thing we don’t want are the ugly scenes which are going to be today’s headlines rather than our victory.”

Bruce confirmed: “I was hit by a coin before the game. Thankfully I’ve got a hard head. It was one individual out of nearly 43,000 people but again it’s sad because I’m talking about that because we’ve beaten Villa 5-0 on aggregate over two matches this season.”

Referee Mark Halsey was unavailable for comment after the game but his report seems certain to contain the kind of evidence which will mean Villa eventually facing an FA charge.

Villa fell apart once the normally ice cool Dublin had made a crude-looking challenge on Savage and then headbutted him after the Welsh international had jumped to his feet.

Words were exchanged with Dublin mouthing ‘cheat’ to the pitch-side cameras as he headed to the dressing-room although Bruce was adamant that there had been no racist remarks made by Savage.

He said: “I’ve known Dion for 15 years and I’ve never ever seen him do anything like that. In the heat of the battle we all sometimes see red and when Dion looks at the incident again I’m sure he’ll regret what he’s done.

“I don’t know what’s been said but let’s make it perfectly clear that there were no racial undertones and even the Villa staff have said that is the case to me.”

Bruce was unhappy with the tackle by Gudjonsson on Matthew Upson which earned the on-loan Real Betis player a second yellow card in the game.

He said: “It was a horrific tackle and things like that break people’s legs. No-one can condone challenges like that.”

Bruce, who would not allow his players to give interviews after the game, admitted he eventually substituted Savage for his own protection.

He said: “I took him off because he’s one booking away from a suspension and he had upset a few people and, with them down to nine men, people were trying to exact revenge. I thought we would take him out of the firing line.”

The normally talkative Villa manager Graham Taylor confined his thoughts to the home dressing room.

He would only say: “I would normally come in and do my best to answer your questions but not on this occasion. All the talking I’ve got to do is going to be in the dressing room.”

But Villa midfielder Gareth Barry admitted: “The lads are devastated. We had a couple of mad moments in the game, we lost our cool and it ended up in a couple of sending-offs and there was no way back from there.

“It’s also a bit scary with the crowd trouble, especially when the fans enter the pitch. It does put you under a bit of pressure and certain situations can get messy.

“The game was stopped and we knew what was going on. It was disappointing to see, especially after the first game.”

A West Midlands Police spokesman said: “The behaviour of some supporters has been atrocious and put many people in danger.

“Police inquiries will continue and we will seek to identify those not yet arrested.”

Lazaridis broke the deadlock when he headed in a Jeff Kenna cross and then Horsfield won a 50-50 ball with hesitant Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman and wrapped up the points for Blues.