Blues v Villa tonight - but will it be a thriller or a chiller?

Birmingham City take on Aston Villa at St Andrew's this evening in the quarter final of the Carling Cup, but a game which should be a fantastic local derby thriller could also be a chiller as the snow continues to come down and temperatures remain low.

Blues boss Alex McLeish believes that the home fans could play a big role in terms of spurring on the boys in blue and has been talking up memories of their 3-0 triumph over Villa when Blues returned to the top flight 8 years ago. He was not managing Blues back then but was apparently present at the game.

But 3-0 may be rather ambitious for either side who are both lacking consistent strike power up-front at the moment so McLeish may be hoping for an early goal and then to bolt the doors up at the back for the remainder of the match as they did when they beat Chelsea recently. If this were to happen, Villa could find it very difficult to break through.



Birmingham's legendary Scarf Lady says
"wrap up warm tonight me babs"

 Having said this, Agbonlahor is set to return to the Villa side after a period of illness and could be the vital factor in the game, as he has been in recent derbies between the two sides. Ex-Villa players Craig Gardner and Liam Ridgewell will also have points to prove if they play.

I see this one as being a tighly fought contest in difficult environmental conditions and could even go to penalties, in which case it will be anyone's to win.

I am going to St Andrew's tonight with my two sons so we are very excited about the match and fingers crossed the weather conditions don't stop play. The great thing about the Villa Blues rivalry is that the city is not split geographically or religiously as it is in certain UK cities, so my family and workplace are fairly evenly split and the banter is fantastic and very good humoured.

But either way, someone has to win tonight because it's a cup match, so no goaless draws on this one and whatever transpires, someone is guaranteed Braggers' Rights!

Editor's note:

Incidentally, in spite of my original intentions for this website, the Braggers' League table is purely based upon the results of the Premiership derbies, anything else would have been too complicated and introduced the possibility of bias from me as a Villa fan (as if!!) So this match is purely for pride and a place in the semi finals of the Carling cup.

But mainly pride.