1) Aston Villa 7-3 Small Heath (First Division, September 1895)

Villa dominated the Football League during its Victorian infancy – they racked up five titles by 1900 – so their early command of the Birmingham scene is no great surprise. In November 1887, they met the club that would become bitter city rivals in serious competition for the first time: Small Heath Alliance were dispatched 4-0 in the FA Cup second round. It was payback for the first friendly between the clubs in 1879, which Alliance won 1-0 at their Muntz Street ground. Villa – already a grand, bordering on aristocratic, institution despite being just four years and nine months old – complained bitterly that the pitch was full of holes.

Small Heath reached the First Division in 1894, having quietly dropped the “Alliance” along the way. At this point, Villa were English champions, so won the first league meeting between the clubs 2-1 at their old Perry Barr stadium but could only scrape a 2-2 draw a month later at Muntz Street. A year later, Villa reasserted themselves in the grand fashion as they romped to a five-goal half-time lead at Perry Barr. The irrepressible Fred Wheldon pulled two back early in the second half, but the eel-fast James Cowan – who had devised a fictional bad back during Villa’s 1893-94 title campaign so he could compete in a cash-money sprint in his native Scotland – reasserted Villa’s authority with a sixth. Villa ran out 7-3 winners, won the return 4-1, and went on to win their second championship. Their poor rivals ended the season relegated.

2) Birmingham 5-2 Aston Villa (Lord Mayor of Birmingham Charity Cup, September 1908)

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Small Heath would never taste competitive victory over Villa. Not if we’re being strictly pedantic. By the time Villa were eventually bested, 2-0 at Muntz Street in the First Division in September 1905, Small Heath had changed their name to Birmingham Football Club (the City appendage was another 39 years away). Having waited 18 years, a second Blues win in the derby arrived almost immediately: they won 3-1 at Villa Park four months later, then prevailed 3-2 at their new St Andrew’s pad the following season. Then in September 1908, Blues recorded a splendid 5-2 victory in the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Charity Cup at St Andrew’s. That game was notable for the travails of Villa striker “Happy” Harry Hampton, who smacked a second-half penalty straight at Jack Dorrington. The rebound fell to Hampton’s strike partner Joe Bache, who was scythed to the ground by Frank Womack before he could slot home. Another penalty! Cue another miserable Hampton effort straight at Dorrington, who caught it this time and held on for dear life.

It was a rare unhappy day for Harry. During his time at Villa he scored 215 goals in 341 league games, a club record that still stands; was their two-goal matchwinner in the 1905 FA Cup final against Newcastle; and on their successful run-in to the 1909-10 league title, notched two hat-tricks in 24 hours against Middlesbrough and Bury. Not afraid of putting in a challenge, he was one of the few players to successfully bundle notoriously well-upholstered goalkeeper William “Fatty” Foulke into the net. After serving on the Somme in the Great War, Hampton joined Birmingham as a 35-year-old veteran, was converted into a winger, and promptly scored nine in his first five games. But this was an off day.

3) Aston Villa 3-3 Birmingham (First Division, October 1925)

Having run the rule over Villa’s record league goalscorer, it’s only fair to give Birmingham’s greatest marksman our consideration. Joe Bradford cost Blues £125 from Leicestershire village team Peggs Green Victoria in 1920; by the time he left for Bristol City in 1935, he’d rattled in 267 goals in 445 appearances. The next-best goalgetter in Birmingham’s history is Trevor Francis, who managed 133 in 329.

Bradford was the real deal. He scored 11 in eight days during a particularly fecund spell in September 1929, a five-goal haul for a representative Football League team against an equivalent Irish shower sandwiched by Blues hat-tricks against Newcastle and Blackburn. He also scored in his side’s 2-1 defeat against West Brom in the 1931 FA Cup final. But arguably his finest couple of minutes came at Villa Park, with the hosts three goals to the good and 11 minutes remaining. Bradford scored a quickfire double, sending such a shiver down the spine of Villa keeper Cyril Spiers that, in attempting to gather a pea-roller of a shot by Jimmy Cringan, he slipped and hoicked into his own net. Three goals in five minutes, a highly unlikely point for Blues, and a slapstick goalkeeping template set for the future. But let’s not riff on poor Peter Enckelman before we have to.

4) Birmingham City 3-1 Aston Villa (League Cup final, May 1963)

On the final day of the 1962-63 season, Birmingham City saved their First Division skin with a 3-2 win over Leicester, the seize-the-moment victory condemning Manchester City to relegation instead. There was a celebratory atmosphere at St Andrew’s: at one point during the match, Bertie Auld ushered a small boy on to the field and played a quick one-two with him from a short corner. The ref ordered the lad off the pitch, and made a theatrically affronted Auld take the set piece again.

The feelgood factor continued five days later, as Blues welcomed Villa for the first leg of the third League Cup final. Villa were favourites to lift the trophy for a second time, having finished comfortably in mid-table as Birmingham toiled. But they were thoroughly outplayed. The atmosphere was a little muted – cup finals were historically one-off Saturday afternoon affairs, and this first leg was played on a Thursday – though a boy scout band did their best to give the event a special atmosphere. Auld set up Ken Leek for the opener on 15 minutes, and though Bobby Thomson equalised, Birmingham opened a significant lead in the second half. Jimmy Harris set up Leek for his second, and then Jimmy Bloomfield embarked on a fine dribble and finished from a tight angle. It was a goal good enough to earn sporting applause from the scattered Villa defence. Villa had nothing in the return leg. Birmingham’s defence stood resolute, and Trevor Smith lifted City’s first major trophy.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Birmingham City with the League Cup trophy. Photograph: Colorsport/Rex/Shutterstock

5) Aston Villa 1-0 Birmingham City (First Division, October 1983)

Plying their trade this sodden afternoon on a waterlogged Villa Park pitch: Steve McMahon, Pat van den Hauwe, Noel Blake, Howard Gayle, Robert Hopkins, Colin Gibson, Mick Harford. In the away dugout: Ron Saunders, who had walked out on Villa harbouring stratospheric levels of underpaid resentment, taken up a position across town out of spite, and had subsequently spent time disparaging his successor Tony Barton in the press. Outside the ground beforehand: hour after hour of early-80s-style misbehaviour culminating in 80 arrests. What could possibly go wrong?

The tone was set early when Gayle slid in robustly on young Villa winger Mark Walters. Peter Withe – Villa’s European Cup-winning hero, but also an erstwhile Blue – arrived to wag his finger with theatrical fury. A provocative act, which the striker compounded by pouncing on a loose Van den Hauwe backpass to prod past Tony Coton. It was, by now, very much on. The temperature was taken up another notch when Birmingham thought they had equalised, Blake hoicking goalwards during a scramble in the Villa box. Nigel Spink hooked the ball off the line. Or was it over? Villa got the benefit of the doubt, stopping Blake and Gayle’s celebrations mid-cavort. Tempers were further tweaked when Harford kicked a dead ball at Villa captain Dennis Mortimer, who momentarily considered instigating a nose-to-nose Socratic dialogue with his assailant, only to change his mind when the notoriously nails striker wound back his neck muscles with a view to planting the nut.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Goal-line drama in 1983. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo

Then the spark which exploded the tinder box. Near the centre circle, Blues midfielder Kevan Broadhurst miscontrolled. McMahon put in a sliding tackle to match. Reckless and hideous. Broadhurst was carted off on a stretcher, while Harford, arriving in a fit of righteous rage, attempted to separate McMahon’s head from his neck with one brisk twist. No red cards were issued. According to Broadhurst, Hopkins, Blake, Gayle and Coton paid a visit to the Villa dressing room at half-time “just to say hello”. Gayle ensured social pleasantries were also observed during the second half, sliding in hysterically on Colin Gibson. Hopkins – a boyhood Blue who had once played for Villa, and was once rumbled for wearing a Birmingham top under the claret-and-blue shirt – got involved by attempting to take out Mortimer and then Gibson. However, sliding around on his arse at speed, he connected with neither. Gibson got up, clattered Gayle, and was immediately sent off.

Astonishingly, this wasn’t even the pièce de résistance. Withe handled in the area, conceding a penalty. Blake sidefooted a lame one, allowing Spink to become the hero, and Villa to claim three points. Spink’s save also gave McMahon the opportunity to remind Blake of the scoreline. Blake introduced his forehead to the bridge of McMahon’s beak, firmly and with feeling, for the trouble. Phew. Was that it? Well, yes. But only because Villa declined Birmingham’s post-match offer to reconvene for the throwing of hands in the players’ lounge.

6) Birmingham City 3-0 Aston Villa (Premier League, September 2002)

Peter Enckelman’s infamous error and his admirably dignified response to some jug-bound toolkit getting right up in his grille, suddenly seems rather quaint, doesn’t it?