Birmingham - 2 Aston Villa - 0: Thomas Sorensen must stand a chance of becoming the first Aston Villa employee to be voted Birmingham City's player of the season. Not content with helping Steve Bruce's team to victory at Villa Park last December, the goalkeeper made another horrible mistake yesterday as Birmingham completed a deserved double over their fiercest rivals. "Nice one Tommy, let's have another one," chorused a mocking home crowd.
The way Sorensen allowed an Emile Heskey shot to squirm under his body at the near post to give Birmingham a 52nd-minute lead brought back memories of the soft Clinton Morrison shot that went in over his gloves in the previous derby. It also confirmed this fixture as a graveyard for Villa keepers.
Such gaffes have helped Bruce's team go six games unbeaten against Villa since their return to the top flight.
That statistic is making these defeats even harder for Villa fans to stomach. Their side never really looked like changing it, even if Maik Taylor showed Sorensen the value of being sharp at the right moments by excellently pushing a Nolberto Solano free-kick against a post at 0-0.
Though it had been hard to see either team scoring before Heskey's goal, Birmingham ended worthy winners with Matthew Upson and Kenny Cunningham standing firm, before Julian Gray settled matters.
It was symptomatic of Villa's capacity to trip themselves up that an Olof Mellberg clearance struck his team-mate Martin Laursen and rebounded for Gray to score. "We don't seem to get any breaks in these games," moaned David O'Leary, whose team are now only two points ahead of Birmingham. "We have proved over the last couple of seasons that, league-wise, we are the better team," he added, referring to final Premiership positions. "But they must love playing us because we just gift them points." He called the first goal "shocking" and the second "stupid".
Villa did not do enough to justify sympathy. They started with a game plan designed to prevent them from losing, never looked like scoring from open play and could not rescue themselves when O'Leary sent on Carlton Cole and Darius Vassell. The changes prompted a spell of slicker attacking, Cole and Thomas Hitzlsperger having shots, but Taylor was not forced into another good save until after Gray had scored.
Villa's frustration was evident at the end when Lee Hendrie confronted Mario Melchiot and Morrison. By then Birmingham's positive start had been all but forgotten, with Heskey and particularly Walter Pandiani involved.
Those two were quiet for long periods but Heskey's physical presence tested Villa and Pandiani showed some nice touches. It was Pandiani's pass that enabled Heskey to buffet his way past Laursen and Mellberg and hit the shot that Sorensen allowed in. Although Sorensen made a good save when Pandiani headed a cross by the lively Damien Johnson, the damage was done. Home fans were chanting the goalkeeper's name sarcastically before Gray secured the result. ...
