Blues bashing

Last updated : 17 April 2008 By Tom Vickers

On Blues last visit to the pride of Midlands football -Villa Park, Villa saw off their fierce rivals with a 3-1 thrashing.
The goals came from Milan Baros (2) and Gary Cahill who netted one of the strikesof the season.
The sense of relief around the ground was tangible as the fans had waited a while to see a victory against their chief tormentors.
The Blues had not lost on their three Premiership visits across the city and were lauding it a little.
But Villa had already broken the away day hoodoo after 'Super' Kevin Phillips struck to claim a 1-0 victory at St Andrews.
That crucial goal signalled a rush of shirts which taunted Birmingham on their visit and their performance on the pitch was far from vengeful.
Baros opened the scoring on just 10 minutes as Aaron Hughes' cross evaded the entire Blues back line and the Czech finished with ease from two yards out.
The visitors then suffered another blow as influential midfield man David Dunn limped off to be replaced by the equally troublesome Mikael Forssell.

Enemy

Birmingham soon levelled matters as Emile Heskey combined well with Chris Sutton who finished well.
It looked like another disappointing derby day was on the cards but Villa had other ideas. They knew they could beat the old enemy. They had a taste for it and they came out firing from the restart.
Gary Cahill was the man who put Villa in front and it was a spectacular finish. Kevin Phillips headed on after a poor clearance by Olivier Tebily and Cahill was air bound by the time the ball reached him.
Somehow he performed an acrobatic scissor kick which catapulted the ball into the Holte End net.
It was the stuff of fairytales for the defender who had been brought through the club academy.
Moments after Cahill scored Blues went close as Tommy Sorensen defied Forssell.
It was understandably edgy for the home faithful who had seen their side in the same position just two seasons earlier when Stern John nicked a late point.
Nevertheless the players kept cool and hit Blues on the counter attack to finish the game.
The brilliant Baros started and finished the move which completed the victory and the double for Villa.
Fans of the Claret and Blue will clearly be hoping for a repeat of this rout when the Blues face up to the Villa Park verve on Sunday.