Baggies’ joy at home of Blues
It’s never been the fiercest rivalry in the West Midlands, but the Baggies have had plenty of joy at St Andrew’s in the past.
We’ve delved into the archives to pick out five of Albion’s best away days in Birmingham.
Blues 3-5 Albion
December 26, 1957
This was a Boxing Day ding-dong worthy of the title.
Earlier in the season, Albion had thrashed Manchester City 9-2, which remains to this day their biggest ever league win. But Vic Buckingham’s men arrived at St Andrew’s without a win in four.
Birmingham, on the other hand, were unbeaten in six, and were riding high having just beaten Villa 2-0 at Villa Park.
But despite goals from Eddy Brown, Dick Neal, and a penalty from Harry Hooper, Blues were undone by braces from Albion’s England internationals Bobby Robson and Derek Kevan.
Ronnie Allen scored Albion’s other goal in front of a healthy crowd of 48,369 and it sparked a remarkable run for the Baggies at St Andrew’s.
Blues 1-7 Albion
April 18, 1960
Albion scored a total of 18 goals in three visits to St Andrew’s from December 1957 to April 1960, but this was the biggest win of them all and included two hat-tricks.
Blues actually took the lead in the fourth minute when Johnny Gordon steered a corner into the net, but the hosts were battling relegation, and the Baggies soon took control.
By half-time it was already 3-1 to Gordon Clark’s men, and then after the break both Kevan and Allen completed their hat-tricks. Albion’s other was scored by Alec Jackson.
The crazy thing was that the two sides met again at The Hawthorns the very next day, but Albion couldn’t replicate the thrashing in front of their home fans and the match finished 1-1.
Birmingham stayed up by a single point that season
Blues 1-4 Albion
October 15, 1988
After Ron Atkinson had quit the Baggies to join Atletico Madrid, Brian Talbot got his managerial reign off to a stunning start in Birmingham.
Former Blues player Robert Hopkins scored twice for the Baggies while Stewart Phillips and Gary Robson were also on target.
It sparked a five-game winning streak and the Baggies were top of the Second Division over the turn of the year, but they faded in the second half of the season.
Blues 2-3 Albion
February 4, 1997
lan Buckley had just been sacked and the Baggies were under the caretaker charge of Arthur Mann, and they picked up their first win in six thanks to a super brace from Super Bob.
Martin O’Connor put the Blues 1-0 up before Bob Taylor powered home a head just before half-time.
Paul Devlin restored Birmingham’s lead with a penalty before Richard Sneekes levelled the match up with Albion’s second. Late on, Taylor scored another header, this time from an Andy Hunt cross, to win it for the Baggies.
Blues 1 - 3 Albion
March 5, 2011
The Baggies brought Birmingham back down to earth with a bump a week after they had beaten Arsenal to lift the League Cup at Wembley Stadium.
It was also Roy Hodgson’s first win as Albion boss, and came via an entertaining second half.
Youssouf Mulumbu opened the scoring shortly after half-time before Jean Beausejour equalised a minute later.
James Morrison fired past Ben Foster in the Birmingham goal to make it three goals in 11 minutes.
The game started to heat up when Liam Ridgewell and Paul Scharner were both booked for wrestling each other to the floor and then Scharner rounded the game off with Albion’s third goal.
The Baggies leapfrogged Blues with the victory, and eventually stayed up in 11th while Birmingham were relegated.
