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Top three Blues v Villa moments

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It’s now under 48 hours before the action kicks off at Villa Park as Birmingham City take on Aston Villa in the Second City derby on Sunday afternoon.

It sure will be an explosive game with it being Harry Redknapp`s first game in charge as Blues manager and with his side needing the points to take the steps towards Championship safety.

There have been many great moments down the years in this fixture, but here are my top three Blues v Villa moments:

1) Enckelman OG – Birmingham City 3-0 Aston Villa (September 16 2002)

This has to be a moment on almost every Blues fans list. It’s the comical moment of when Villa goalkeeper Peter Enckelman let the ball slip under his foot as it rolled into the net to give Blues a 2-0 lead.

There were 77 minutes on the clock and Villa were pushing for an equaliser. Olof Mellberg took what looked to be a routine throw-in back to Enckelman but as he went to control it, for whatever reason he failed to, and the ball ended up past him and into the goal.

2) Stern John last gasp equaliser – Aston Villa 2-2 Birmingham City (February 22 2004)

Never have I ever seen an away end produce scenes that Blues fans produced when Stern John popped up to rescue Blues in this fixture. Villa led 2-0 but after a Mikael Forssell goal set up a tense finale, John equalised with just seconds left on the clock.

Clinton Morrison`s shot was saved by Thomas Sorenson before John reacted first to pounce and fire his shot into the roof of the net to send the Blues fans, players and Steve Bruce crazy.

3) Nikola Zigic winner – Birmingham City 2-1 Aston Villa (December 1 2010)

On a snowy December night at St. Andrew`s, a semi-final place in the Carling Cup was up for grabs. The scores were level at 1-1 before Nikola Zigic stuck to take Blues through.

There were six minutes left of normal time to play when Cameron Jerome cut the ball back to the big Serb. Zigic and Luke Young both went for the ball but the formers shot deflected off Young and looped over Brad Friedel in the Villa goal and into the back of the net.

That was the start of Zigic`s cult hero status at Blues and we all know what happened afterwards. Blues beat West Ham over two legs in the semi-final and lifted the 2011 Carling Cup after beating Arsenal against all the odds.

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