It is now just under a week until Villa Park will host the Second City derby between fierce rivals: Aston Villa and Birmingham City.
The game that will kick off on Sunday lunchtime will be the first fixture, between the two sides, contested at Villa Park, in the second tier, during the modern footballing era.
All previous Villa Park fixtures, of course, since the football leagues restructuring, have been played in the Premier League.
The earlier season fixture ended 1-1 at St Andrew’s and was watched by close to 30,000 spectators.
However, with the news, late last week that the latest fixture will be a complete sell-out – Villa will be looking to pile yet more pressure on their struggling neighbours. In particular under-fire manager, Gianfranco Zola.
Zola has been the target of much criticism from the Birmingham faithful, having only picked up two wins since replacing Gary Rowett in December. The poor form shown by his side has seen them move just four points clear of the drop zone with four to play.
Of course, historically, there has been no love lost between these two.
From Dion Dublin’s infamous headbutt, Peter Enckleman’s moment to forget, and the Carling Cup semi-final; this fixture rarely passes without any talking points. Journalist’s, especially, are never too far away from a story to report.
https://twitter.com/mattlyynch/status/852815393601183745
One for the Villa fans out there, I’m sure.