Aston Villa - 1 Birmingham - 2: There is something about facing Birmingham City that makes the blood drain from the faces of Aston Villa's players. David O'Leary's team had not lost at home all season, but their stagefright was so acute yesterday that their cross-city neighbours could have won by a far greater margin.

Villa's jitters began with a horrible mistake from Thomas Sorensen to spill a speculative shot from Clinton Morrison into his own goal, and the sense of deep unease spread thereafter.

David Dunn doubled the lead, but the opening half was a story of missed Birmingham City opportunities. Dunn squandered two one-on-ones against Sorensen and Emile Heskey struck a post when clean through.

Their profligacy mattered little in the end, and Steve Bruce was entitled to reflect on a "magnificent performance".

O'Leary, meanwhile, was at a loss to explain Villa's wretched start. "I'd like to know what happened, but I don't," he said. "Christmas came early for Birmingham.

"Good luck to Birmingham. They got the three points, and you can't gift people two goals like we did and then expect to try and win the game," O'Leary said.

"We played some really good football and in the second half we played them off the pitch at times, but the goal we got was a bit too late."

Nowhere was the disparity between the two teams more apparent than up front. Whereas Juan Pablo Angel and Carlton Cole posed only a peripheral threat, Morrison and Heskey in particular were a constant menace to the home side.

Given how easily Heskey dominated Olof Mellberg, the much maligned striker might yet be capable of winning an England recall.

"He gets a lot of criticism but, when he plays like that, there's no one better," said Bruce.

Mellberg is usually one of Villa's better players, but this was a match he will want to forget. The press cuttings of his antiBirmingham comments had circulated in the away dressing-room and Bruce could not resist a verbal swipe.

"I didn't have to do a team talk after what he said," he volunteered. "I read all that rubbish about how he could never play for Birmingham. Well, after that performance, he'd never get a game. He's had a tough afternoon, hasn't he?"

Mellberg's frustrations were evident when he locked foreheads with Kenny Cunningham and was booked during a first half melee that started when Gareth Barry fell on the ball and Damien Johnson tried to kick it from beneath him.

That was the only occasion a match with a historically short fuse threatened to run out of control, but the potential for disorder was never far away and inevitably Robbie Savage was at the hub of matters.

When he was not winning challenges or mopping up, he was showboating like a boxer. When Gavin McCann miscontrolled for a throw-in Savage had the temerity to guffaw. Who says the laughter has gone out of football?

Villa's fans reserved their worst vitriol for the Welsh international, but they must wish their team had someone like him. He was the day's outstanding player.

The opening goal came when Morrison ran on to Heskey's flick and held off Mark Delaney before turning a shot at Sorensen's goal. In the goalkeeper's defence, the ball bounced viciously off the turf, but his positioning was poor and his handling worse.

Ten minutes later, Morrison controlled a punt from defence and sent Johnson clear on the right. Dunn ran from his own half to arrive and score from Johnson's cross.

Birmingham's more conservative approach after the interval allowed Villa to press forward, but they did so without distinction until Barry took down Mellberg's long ball, beat Oliver Tebily and volleyed in. In this fixture it was no consolation at all.