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Birmingham City 0-1 Aston Villa
Match Reports, 14:12, September 13, 2009 ,
Gabriel Agbonlahor's header five minutes from time gave Aston Villa local bragging rights as they overcame Birmingham 1-0.
The first half was a tight and tense affair, with neither side able to dominate any period of the game and it was more of the same in the second half, with clear-cut chances for either side few and far between.
An inspired tactical change by Martin O'Neill with 20 minutes remaining saw John Carew introduced to the game in place of Nigel Reo-Coker. He gave Villa another dimension in attack and it was he who got up well to head Ashley Young's late free-kick back across the face of goal for Agbonlahor to nod it past Joe Hart to give Villa the lead.
The margin of victory should have been bigger for Villa but Agbonlahor wasted a one-on-one with Hart when he fired over before Carew and James Milner raced through on goal only for the substitutes' pass to Milner to go astray with an open goal awaiting. Villa, however, held on for the three points to lift them up into sixth in the table.