The claret and blue half of the city was celebrating last night after Aston Villa finally recorded their first Premiership victory over local rivals Birmingham City.

The 1- 0 win at Blues' St Andrew's home ended 18 years of agony for Villa fans who have not seen their club win a league derby since 1987.

A solitary Kevin Phillips goal was enough to earn Villa the three points and put Blues on the brink of the relegation zone.

It was the first time Villa had triumphed in seven Premiership meetings with Blues.

The game passed off peacefully, with police making only "a couple" of arrests for public order offences.

Villa manager David O'Leary jokingly said his team won because there was no repeat of the goalkeeping blunders that have haunted his team in recent derbies.

Blues boss Steve Bruce conceded that Birmingham are now facing a relegation battle as they have collected one point from a possible 15 at St Andrew's this season.

A less than fully fit Phillips only played yesterday because Milan Baros was ruled out with an Achilles problem and Juan Pablo Angel was jet-lagged after returning from World Cup action with Colombia.

The former Southampton striker produced a deadly finish midway through the first half which settled the game.

The final whistle sparked celebrations from Villa players and O'Leary, who ran on to the pitch to signal his delight to the club's chairman Doug Ellis, who was sitting in the directors' box.

He said: "I had family and members of the board in the directors' box. There were people there like the chairman, who has taken a lot of stick this week and been very ill, Steve Stride ( operations director) and people who have been good to work with. I could see the smiles on their faces and I was pleased for them. It was a good win."

Blues are searching for their first home win of the campaign and currently have a number of players injured.

Bruce said: "We know now with our form at home that it is going to be a long hard winter. That's for sure. We'll prepare again on Monday, start again, try and not feel sorry for ourselves and be ready for what will now definitely be a scrap.

"We need to start winning a few games. We don't like being down there."

Many of the pubs in Birmingham were closed yesterday as crowds streamed back into the city centre after the match, which kicked off at midday.

West Midlands Police Inspector Graeme Pringle said: "There were no major incidents of disorder around the ground after the game."