Villa triumph in adversity to make it back to back wins of the most contrasting styles and leave their neighbours languishing yet again.

Villa move up to 9th place, 6 points off the play off places.

Dean Smith takes charge of Villa for the 25th game to make it W9 D9 L7 at a win rate of 36.00%, loss rate of 28.00% at 1.44 points per game so far in his Villa management career.

Villa extend their unbeaten League run against Birmingham to 14 games to make it 17 wins and 6 draws in their last 28 meetings with their neighbours dating back to 1987.

Villa are now unbeaten in the League against their neighbours for 14 seasons.

Conor Hourihane makes his 100th appearance in a Villa shirt (88 Starts) to make it W44 D26 L30, 19 Goals, 14 Assists and 19 Bookings so far in his Villa career.

Ahmed Elmohamady makes his 75th appearance in a Villa shirt (61 Starts) to make it W35 D21 L19, 2 Goals, 10 Assists and 2 Bookings so far in his Villa career.

Jack Grealish contributes his 30th goal involvement in a Villa shirt on his 134th appearance (89 Starts) to make it W49 D26 L56, 13 Goals, 17 Assists, 21 Bookings and 2 Red Cards so far in his Villa career. Grealish had achieved 10 goal involvements in 62 appearances (35 Starts), his second ten had come in 41 appearances (25 Starts) and his third has come in 31 appearances (29 Starts).

Meanwhile, Birmingham, always exciteable against their neighbours, take thuggery to a new level as a pitch invader assaults Jack Grealish. Nobody in Blue comes out with any credit from the Blues board to the cheering hordes.

The following day the offfender is sentenced to 14 weeks in prison.