Birmingham City head coach Steve Cotterill has told the Birmingham Mail that he wants more consistency from his team ahead of their big derby match against Aston Villa.

Cotterill took over from Harry Redknapp as Birmingham manager and his first two games have been mixed. They shocked many when they beat sky Bet Championship leaders Cardiff City in their first game but the Blues were soon brought down to Earth after they slumped to a 2-0 defeat against Millwall at the weekend.

And now Cotterill has one of the biggest games of the season coming up as Birmingham prepare to take on Aston Villa in the hotly contested Second City derby. The Villains have been in great form recently and have risen up the table after a shaky start to the season but Birmingham do have a chance to cause an upset much like they did against Cardiff.

And Cotterill has asked for his team to be more consistent ahead of this massive match. He said: “Maybe it will be the perfect game – but we had a perfect game didn’t we when we played at home to Cardiff in my first game?”

“We had a perfect game [at Millwall] to build on that Cardiff game.”

“It’s easier sometimes to keep a momentum going than it is to be stop-start, stop-start all the time with win-loss, win-loss. You can’t do that.”

“We have got to lick our wounds and get on with it and try and do our best next week.”

“The training will still be the same, it will still be tough, it will be hard work. We will be prepared when we go into Aston Villa.”