Villa Sporting Star columnist Dave Woodhall is glad to have the Second City derby trip out of the way as focus turns to facing bottom club Portsmouth.

Well, we’ve got that one out of the way. I keep saying we should have outgrown the idea of having Blues as our biggest rivals by now, but there’s no denying that beating them at St Andrews is a bit special.

It was a poor game, in fact listening on Five Live I couldn’t help but agree with the commentators who described it as the worst they’ve seen all season. I’ve certainly been to better Midland Combination matches.

But all that was forgotten, first when Gabby Agbonlahor’s header hit the back of the net and then a few minutes later when the referee’s whistle signalled another three points and the celebrations could begin.

The main reason I was at home listening to the radio rather than attending St Andrews was the  prices charged by Blues. £48 is an absolute disgrace and reflected in the blocks of empty seats on show.

What the attendance would have been like had Blues not conveniently found a large number of ‘restricted view’ tickets to sell at £15 I can’t imagine. The price they charge to visit St Andrew’s is just one of the reasons why I’ll be glad to see the back of Birmingham City’s owners.

So onto Saturday’s game with Portsmouth. We’ve won our last four, they’ve lost all their league games. Naturally this means there’s bound to be an upset, but the Villa of this season seem more focused.

They’re taking nothing for granted and every player in the team knows he can be replaced if he isn’t giving his all. Potsmouth have a good record at Villa Park but I can’t see anything other than a routine two or three goal win to set us up for another difficult game, at home to Cardiff in the Carling Cup.

Even though we’ve eased our way into the top six almost unnoticed, the cups still represent Villa’s easiest route back into Europe.

More than that, our record in the knockout competitions has been appalling in recent years and it’s about time the Villa Park trophy room was opened up once more.