England's champions: Who has the most wins in the country's biggest local derbies?

#4 Birmingham Derby

Birmingham’s ‘Second City Derby’ between the Blues and Aston Villa is always a heated affair

Thanks to Birmingham’s status as England’s second-biggest city, the Birmingham derby is unsurprisingly also known as the ‘Second City Derby’. Unfortunately, though, the two teams involved – Birmingham City and Aston Villa – have been devoid of any success over the last few years to the point where neither team is currently in the Premier League. For a city as big as Birmingham, that’s quite shameful.

The rivalry is a hugely fierce one, with the hooligan element of both fanbases often clashing during derby matches. Due to Birmingham’s struggles in the early Premier League era there haven’t been quite as many competitive matches between the two as there have been in other derbies, and it’s no shocker that it’s Villa who have the upper hand – they have 51 victories to Birmingham’s 37, with 29 draws between the two.

One of the more memorable games in recent time, however, was a Birmingham win. It came in the 2002/03 season, the first one for the Blues in the Premier League, and involved Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman making a horrendous error – he let a throw-in slide under his foot directly into the net, and the goal led to a 3-0 victory for Birmingham at St. Andrews.

Most recently though Villa came out on top again. 2016/17 saw a 1-1 draw at St. Andrews followed by a 1-0 victory for the Villains at Villa Park, with the goal coming from local hero Gabriel Agbonlahor. With both sides stuck deep in the Championship though, the game went largely ignored.

Who knows when we’ll see the Second City Derby in the Premier League again?