In English football, the Second City derby or Birmingham derby is the local derby between the two major clubs in the city of Birmingham – Aston Villa and Birmingham City, first contested in 1879. Villa play at Villa Park while Birmingham play at St Andrew's, the two grounds separated by roughly . It is known as the Second City Derby based on Birmingham being referred to as the second city of the United Kingdom. The two clubs are generally regarded as each other's most fierce rivals. In addition both sides have affiliated women's sides, Aston Villa W.F.C. and Birmingham City W.F.C.
On 10 March 2019, Jack Grealish was "punched from behind by a pitch invader" during the derby match at St Andrews. Later in the second half, Grealish scored to give Villa a 1–0 victory. Following Villa's promotion, the teams have not met since.
History
The clubs first met on 27 September 1879, when Birmingham City were called Small Heath Alliance. The game, on a pitch at Small Heath's Muntz Street ground described by the Villa players as "only suitable for pot-holing", finished 1–0 – recorded as "one goal and a disputed goal to nil" – to the home side. Villa won the first competitive game between the clubs, in the Second Round of the FA Cup at Wellington Road in 1887, by four goals to nil,
The last pre-league FA Cup campaign saw the first competitive "Second City derby" occur on Saturday, 5 November 1887. Villa beat Small Heath 4-0 in the fifth round. Tommy Green scored a brace before half-time with Albert Brown and Albert Allen adding to the score in the second half. This was their first meeting with modern rivals Birmingham City.
The first league encounter, in the First Division in the 1894–95 season, saw Villa win 2–1 after Birmingham had been promoted to the first division for a two year stint.
Second Division Small Heath F.C. took part in the 1900–01 FA Cup, losing in the third round to First division Aston Villa after a replay, Villa's Billy Garraty being the sole scorer over the two fixtures. That season Small Heath finished runners-up in Second Division, so were promoted to the First Division for 1901–02. Villa won 2–0 at Coventry Road Muntz Street with goals by Jack Devey and Joe Bache. In the 1901 Boxing Day fixture, Villa's Jasper McLuckie was the only scorer. At the end of the season Birmingham were relegated back to the Second Division.
Birmingham were promoted to the First Division in 1903–04 and Second City derbies were played up to 1907–08 when they were relegated. The teams would not meet again in top flight competition until fifteen years later when Birmingham were again promoted to the first division for 1921–22. The derbies continued until Aston Villa were relegated in 1935–36. The two teams have engaged in several hotly contested matches. In the 1925 league game at Villa Park, with the home side 3–0 ahead with eleven minutes to go, Blues scored three times in a dramatic final spell to draw the match. The following year, Aston Villa made headlines with the signing of Tom 'Pongo' Waring, and his first appearance was for the reserves against Birmingham City's reserves, which famously drew a crowd of 23,000. Waring scored three times in the match.
Villa were promoted for the 1938–39 season. Both teams won their home games. Following Birmingham's relegation there would be no further derbies until their promotion for the 1948–49 season.
The most significant clash was the final of the 1963 League Cup, which was staged not long after Aston Villa had beaten Birmingham City 4–0 in the league. Blues won 3–1 on aggregate over the two-legged final to claim their first major domestic honour.
During the late 1970s to early 1980s both Villa and Blues met regularly in the First Division and both teams had some memorable successes in the fixture. In 1980–81 Villa did the double over Blues and went on to win the First Division title. Blues scored a memorable 3–0 victory at St Andrew's in the first meeting following Villa's European Cup triumph in 1982. Both teams promptly went into decline. Blues racked up a 3–0 win in a relegation battle at Villa Park in March 1986 but were relegated at the end of that season. Villa would be demoted the following campaign. The next time Villa met Blues in a league fixture at Villa Park again was in the Second Division and saw a 2–0 Blues victory. The reverse fixture at St Andrew's was a 2–1 Villa victory with both goals coming from Garry Thompson. The two sides would only meet again in the 1980s in cup competitions. Villa won 7–0 on aggregate when they clashed twice in the 1988–89 League Cup. The same season Villa also won a Full Members Cup clash 6–0.