Aston Villa: Richard Dunne - Brum premiership pair must do better

Oct 30 2010 by Ken Montgomery, Birmingham Mail

RICHARD Dunne has challenged his backline buddies to summon up the spirit of their dream derby debuts after admitting Villa and Blues are under-achieving in the Premier League.

Dunne, James Collins and Stephen Warnock made their claret and blue bows with a 1-0 victory at St Andrew’s last September and repeated the scoreline with another clean sheet at Villa Park in April.

Villa have had the upper hand over their fierce rivals in recent Second City skirmishes with six wins from six.

But Dunne concedes that neither of Brum’s big two go into the latest clash in the best of Premier League form. Villa have won one, drawn one and lost two in the league under Gerard Houllier, while Blues have the same record in their last four top-flight games.

“It’s a really big game for both clubs and I think we would both prefer to be higher up the league than we are,” said Dunne. “The three points are very important for both of us.

“We’ve been training hard the last few days. We had a good win on Wednesday and we’re looking forward to Sunday. Derbies are always the same. They are high intensity games and there always seems to be a lot of pressure.

“There may not be a lot of great football, it will be high intensity with a lot of tackles.

“I think the team who wants it most tends to come out on top. It’s not always the quality that shines through.

“We have to know on Sunday, whoever the 11 are that go out there, that we have to match Birmingham’s effort and commitment towards the game.”

Dunne reckons his winning debut in Birmingham’s backyard just over a year ago is the perfect example of the resilience Villa must show against their neighbours tomorrow.

“It was a very good day,” he recalled. “Being away in a derby is a really good place to make your debut.