Birmingham City v Aston Villa: 1988 match up was boys against men
THE first meeting of Blues and Villa in the League Cup, in the 1963 final, was high-profile and historic but the second was much more low-key.
Twenty-five years after Blues lifted their first silverware by beating their neighbours right at the business end of the tournament, the teams were paired at the less glamorous end of it – in the second round.
And in 1988, Villa took emphatic revenge as they came up against rivals not only a division below them but near the bottom of that division and struggling desperately.
While Graham Taylor’s Villa, freshly returned to Division One, sat in ninth place and were unbeaten thanks largely to six goals in the first four games by Alan McInally, Blues languished down in 23rd in Division Two and had lost five of six games, including 4-0 at Oldham and 5-0 at Walsall.
Beleaguered by injuries, Blues manager Gary Pendrey had little choice but to confront Villa with a clutch of youngsters and Ronnie Morris, Mark Yates, Ian Clarkson, Simon Sturridge and Paul Tait were in his mind for the first leg at St Andrew’s.
In the end the first three on that list played and acquitted themselves well – but, over two legs, it was a case of the Blues boys against the men of Villa.
Fresh from that drubbing at Walsall and then a 3-0 defeat at Blackburn, Blues, who had edged past Wolves in the first round, needed a confidence-boosting start but got the opposite.
