It wasn’t a bad day for Aston Villa yesterday in the chase for fourth place. Arsenal seemingly couldn’t summon up the desire necessary to beat an unadventurous City side at home, but Utd restated their title credentials by finishing off Tottenham, not an unimpressive feat given form over the last couple of games.

Today was even better, although it wasn’t pretty. Not that any Villa fan will care right now; it’s local bragging rights and, more importantly, 5th place back in our grasp. Three vital points, three wins on the bounce and the chase for fourth place remains very much alive.

The first half was bright and fairly even. Both keepers had work to do, both made impressive saves, although Joe Hart was probably slightly busier. It finished goalless at the break.

The second half did not start well for Villa at all. During the first 15 minutes there were numerous unforced errors and stray passes, gifting Birmingham the opportunity to keep the pressure on. Brad Friedel made a number of vitally important stops, game saving in fact. If he’s not the man of the match for Villa today, I don’t know who was.

Ultimately, it took a late goal from the spot to settle this. Gabby was taken down in full flight in the left channel, as he had been several times throughout the game. Birmingham players, management and fans all made stern protests that Johnson had managed to get a nick on the ball before felling Agbonlahor, which may well be the case, but that doesn’t disqualify the challenge from being a foul. We’ve all seen them given and denied, but I honestly think this was the correct decision.

Can we count ourselves a little fortunate to get the three points? Perhaps. City certainly outplayed us for much of the second half and, with the first half being reasonably even, maybe the shaded the balance of play. That’s football though, it only takes one moment to turn a game.

Frankly, I don’t care anyway. We’ve got the points. We’re still in this race.

Also, we’ve now played 36 games and have 64 points. There’s only one other Premiership season that we have had more at this stage – 1992/93. In fact, there’s only one other season that we’ve finished the season with more than 64 points – 1992/93.

Whatever happens in the final two games, in terms of points, we are now guaranteed that this will be our 2nd best season in the 18 year history of the Premier League.

UTV