Aston Villa earned bragging rights as they beat local rivals Birmingham City 4-2 at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.
The home side started slowly and they were punished for this in the 28th minute when Lukas Jutkiewicz found the back of the net. This rattled Villa and they were fortunate not to go further behind when Che Adams struck the post with around 35 minutes on the clock.
This near-miss seemed to wake Dean Smith’s men up and they were level two minutes later when Albert Adomah’s cross found Jonathan Kodjia completely unmarked in the box, who proceeded to slam the ball home.
The Villa fans were in dreamland two minutes later when another Adomah cross found Grealish unmarked at the back post, to ensure that Villa went in at the break 2-1 to the good.
Villa increased their lead early in the second-half when Tammy Abraham was brought down in the box. The in-form striker dusted himself down and sent the keeper the wrong way with his penalty.
The away side pulled a goal back in the 57th minute thanks to a fine finish from Kristian Pedersen, but Alan Hutton saved the best goal for last.
The former Scotland international picked the ball up inside his own half and ran with it into the Birmingham box before slotting past the keeper.
This was a highly entertaining derby and one that Villa truly deserved to win. Villa have now not lost to Birmingham in 13 games (9 wins and 4 draws).
Here are our player ratings for today’s game:
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