Birmingham: The second city

Birmingham (pronounced /ˈbɝːmɪŋəm/ ( listen), BUR-ming-əm, locally /ˈbɝːmɪŋɡəm/ BUR-ming-gəm) is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands county of England. It is the most populous British city outside London with a population of 1,016,800 (2008 estimate), and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the United Kingdom's second most populous Urban Area with a population of 2,284,093 (2001 census). Birmingham's metropolitan area, which includes surrounding towns to which it is closely tied through commuting, is the United Kingdom's second most populous with a population of 3,683,000.

Birmingham was the powerhouse of the Industrial Revolution in England, a fact which led to it being known as "the workshop of the world" or the "city of a thousand trades". Although Birmingham's industrial importance has declined, it has developed into a national commercial centre, being named as the second-best place in the United Kingdom to locate a business, and the 14th best in Europe by Cushman & Wakefield in 2009. Birmingham is a national hub for conferences, retail and events along with an established high tech, research and development sector, supported by its three Universities. It is also the fourth-most visited city by foreign visitors in the UK.

In 2007, Birmingham was ranked as the 55th-most livable city in the world and the second most livable in the UK, according to the Mercer Index of worldwide standards of living. Birmingham was also one of the founding cities for the Eurocities group and is also sitting as chair. Birmingham has the second-largest city economy in the UK, and was ranked 72nd in the world in 2008.

People from Birmingham are known as 'Brummies', a term derived from the city's nickname of 'Brum'. This comes in turn from the city's dialect name, Brummagem, which may have been derived from one of the city's earlier names, 'Bromwicham'. There is a distinctive Brummie dialect and accent, both of which differ from the adjacent Black Country.

(The picture in this article was taken by me in 2001 and enhanced using the free tool at photofiltre to give the city a claret and blue air)

Friday, 22 January 2010

Football: The Second City Derby

There are two top class football teams teams in Birmingham.

Small Heath Alliance (now known as Birmingham City) and Aston Villa. If you venture 200 yards over the north east City limits you will arrive at West Bromwich Albion, and national commentators try to class them as a Birmingham team. but they most definitely are not.

Well top flight teams... Aston Villa (Villa) have had a much more successful history than Birmingham City (Blues) have had.

Villa have dozens of top flight trophies won in their 136 year history. Blues have won only the one (two if you include the Zenith Data systems aka The Mickey Mouse trophy). Furthermore, their sole victory in the 1963 League Cup was actually over Villa.

This week Villa have reached their 8th League cup final, having previously won the trophy five times...

The league and cup meetings between Villa and Blues are known as second city derbies. Due to the bias of the London/Manchester based press, it is often belittled on a national level

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, and their first league encounter, in the First Division in the 1894–95 season, 2–1.

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, Birmingham 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.

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. Birmingham won 3–1 on aggregate over the two-legged final to claim their only major domestic honour to date.

During the late 1970s to early 1980s both Villa and Birmingham met regularly in the First Division and both teams had some memorable successes in the fixture. In 1980-81 Villa did the double over Birmingham and went onto win the First Division title. Birmingham scored a memorable 3-0 victory at St. Andrews in the first meeting following Villa's European Cup triumph in 1982.Both teams promptly went into decline. Birmingham 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 2–1 Birmingham victory. The reverse fixture at St Andrews 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 aggregrate when they clashed twice in the 1988-89 League Cup. The same season Villa also won a Simod Cup clash 6-0.


As of the end of the 2008–09 season, there have been 115 meetings in major competition between the two teams since the first FA Cup meeting in 1887, of which Aston Villa have won 49 and Birmingham 37. The most goals in one game were scored in a league game on 7 July 1895, in the First Division, as Small Heath lost to Aston Villa 7–3. The biggest winning margin was 5–0 to Aston Villa on 12 October 1988. The last Birmingham victory over Aston Villa was on 20 March 2005, when Birmingham won 2–0 at St Andrew's. Villa have won the last five encounters, most recently on 13 September 2009 at St Andrews, which Villa won 1-0 with a Gabby Agbonlahor headed goal. After the game, 14 fans, made up of supporters from both teams, were arrested for public disorder offences and running onto the pitch.

Records

Firsts

  • First competitive meeting: Aston Villa 4–0 Small Heath Alliance (FA Cup), 5 November 1887.
  • First league meeting: Aston Villa 2–1 Small Heath, 1 September 1894.
  • First away victory for Aston Villa: Small Heath 1–4 Aston Villa, 26 October 1895.
  • First away victory for Birmingham City: Aston Villa 1–3 Birmingham, 20 January 1906.

Results

  • Highest scoring game: Aston Villa 7–3 Small Heath, 7 September 1895.
  • Largest winning margin (Aston Villa): 5 goals - 5–0, 12 October 1988.
  • Largest winning margin (Birmingham City): 4 goals - 4–0, 21 September 1968.

Players

  • Most goals in a match (Aston Villa):
  • Most goals in a match (Birmingham City):

Trends

  • Most games won in a row (Aston Villa): 5, 12 December 1987 – 6 November 1993 and 16 October 2005 – 13 September 2009 (ongoing).
  • Most games won in a row (Birmingham City): 5, 3 April 1976 – 25 February 1978.
  • Most games without defeat (Aston Villa): 13, 5 November 1887 – 25 February 1905.
  • Most games without defeat (Birmingham City): 6, 8 March 1933 – 23 November 1935 and 16 September 2002 – 20 March 2005.
  • Most drawn games in a row: 4, 10 December 1949 – 21 September 1955.
  • Ever since Birmingham have been in the Premier League the result has always been the same during that particular season e.g. 2002/2003- 2 Birmingham wins, 2003/2004- 2 draws, 2004/2005- 2 Birmingham wins, 2005/2006- 2 Villa Wins, 2007/2008- 2 Villa wins

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