Small Heath 0-4 Aston Villa: the first competitive Second City derby (1887)
On Saturday 5 November 1887 Aston Villa beat Small Heath 4-0 in the FA Cup second round, the first competitive meeting between the two clubs and the start of one of English football’s oldest local rivalries, later known as the Second City derby. Small Heath Alliance, the club that would grow into Birmingham City, were the home side at their Muntz Street ground, where about five thousand watched Tommy Green score twice and Albert Brown and Albert Allen add one each. Villa arrived as the reigning FA Cup holders.
The four goals came in a comfortable win, but the fixture matters more for what it started than for the scoreline.
Key Facts
- Small Heath 0-4 Aston Villa, FA Cup second round, Saturday 5 November 1887, played at Muntz Street, Small Heath’s own ground, before roughly five thousand spectators.
- Scorers for Villa: Tommy Green two, Albert Brown one, Albert Allen one.
- The tie was in the second round of the 1887-88 FA Cup, with Small Heath named first as the home club.
- This was the first competitive meeting of the two clubs; Small Heath Alliance are the club later known as Birmingham City.
- Villa played as the holders, having won the previous season’s FA Cup 2-0 against West Bromwich Albion on 2 April 1887.
- Villa did not retain the trophy: they went out at home to Preston North End, who won 3-1 in the fifth round on 7 January 1888, and West Bromwich Albion won the 1888 final.
- No referee is recorded for the match.
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Four goals at Muntz Street
How the Aston Villa Small Heath tie unfolded
The tie was played at Muntz Street, the ground Small Heath had used since the late 1870s, not at Villa’s own Perry Barr and not, as some later accounts have it, at Wellington Road. About five thousand watched, and the home goalkeeper Charsley saved repeatedly to keep the score down. The four-goal margin looks like a stroll, and in attacking terms it was, but Charsley is the reason it was not heavier.
Villa were the superior side from the start. Tommy Green opened the scoring after Albert Allen fed him the ball, then just before half time back-heeled a Brown corner past Charsley to double the lead. After the interval Dennis Hodgetts set up Albert Brown for the third, and Allen finished the scoring about ten minutes from time to complete the 4-0 win. Green and Allen were each scoring their first goal for the club, a neat footnote to a comfortable afternoon.
| Running score | Scorer | Build-up |
|---|---|---|
| Small Heath 0-1 Aston Villa | Tommy Green | Set up by Albert Allen |
| Small Heath 0-2 Aston Villa | Tommy Green | Back-heel from a corner, just before half time |
| Small Heath 0-3 Aston Villa | Albert Brown | Set up by Dennis Hodgetts |
| Small Heath 0-4 Aston Villa | Albert Allen | About ten minutes from time |
The scorers are worth naming, because the tie is so often reduced to the bare scoreline. It was a second-round tie in the 1887-88 FA Cup, with Small Heath the home club in the draw, which is how the result records who hosted it.
Holders, not future winners
Where the tie sat in Villa’s season
It is easy to attach this win to the wrong trophy. Villa were FA Cup holders when they went to Muntz Street, but that was for the season before: they had won the 1886-87 final 2-0 against West Bromwich Albion at Kennington Oval on 2 April 1887. That is the Cup they held on 5 November 1887, and it is why they arrived at Small Heath as the holders.
They did not hold it a second time. Villa went out at home to Preston North End, who won 3-1 in the fifth round on 7 January 1888, and West Bromwich Albion won that season’s Cup, beating Preston 2-1 in the final on 24 March 1888. So the 4-0 at Small Heath was a second-round win on the way out, not a step towards a title. It reads better as an early answer to a local question than as a chapter in a Cup run.
The local question is the real story. This was the first time Villa and Small Heath had met in a competitive match, a starting point for the derby that would later be called the Second City derby once Small Heath Alliance had grown into Birmingham City. The clubs had crossed paths before in friendlies, but the FA Cup put a result on the fixture for the first time, and the result was one-sided. If you follow English football’s oldest local grudges, our Football Rivalries series traces how several of them began with exactly this kind of lopsided first meeting.
The founder-club footnote
The wider context arrived within a year. William McGregor, who had joined the Aston Villa committee in 1877 and later became a director, wrote on 2 March 1888 to his own committee and four other clubs proposing a league that would guarantee fixtures. That proposal became the Football League, and twelve founder clubs contested the opening season from September 1888. Villa were one of them. So the club that turned up at Muntz Street as Cup holders was, ten months later, a founder member of the competition that reshaped the English game.
READ MORE: How England’s fiercest local derbies actually started →
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Aston Villa Small Heath in 1887
What was the score in the first Aston Villa Small Heath FA Cup tie on 5 November 1887?
The result was Small Heath 0-4 Aston Villa, rendered home side first because Small Heath were at home. Villa scored through Tommy Green twice, Albert Brown and Albert Allen, in an FA Cup second-round tie.
Where was the 1887 Aston Villa versus Small Heath FA Cup match played?
It was played at Muntz Street, Small Heath’s own ground, which the club had used since the late 1870s. Small Heath were drawn at home, so Villa were the visitors despite winning comfortably. Some accounts wrongly place the tie at Wellington Road, but it was Muntz Street, before a crowd of about five thousand. That home advantage made no difference to the result.
Which round of the FA Cup was the 5 November 1887 derby?
It was the second round of the 1887-88 FA Cup. Some retellings describe it as a fifth-round tie, which is incorrect. The confusion is easy to make because Villa did reach the fifth round that season, but they did so after this tie, not in it.
Who scored for Aston Villa against Small Heath in November 1887?
Tommy Green scored twice, and Albert Brown and Albert Allen added one each. Green opened after an Allen pass and back-heeled a corner past the Small Heath keeper before half time. Brown then finished a Dennis Hodgetts move, and Allen closed the scoring about ten minutes from time. Green and Allen were each scoring their first goal for the club.
Was this the first ever meeting between Aston Villa and Small Heath?
It was the first competitive meeting, not the first meeting of any kind. This FA Cup tie was the first time the two clubs had met in a competitive match. They had faced each other before in friendlies, which did not carry a competitive result, so it is the recognised starting point for the fixture as a competitive derby.
Are Small Heath and Birmingham City the same club?
Yes. Small Heath Alliance are the club now known as Birmingham City, which is why this 1887 fixture is sometimes listed in modern form as Birmingham City 0-4 Aston Villa. The club changed its name over the decades that followed. That lineage is what makes the 1887 tie the first competitive instance of the modern Second City derby between Villa and Birmingham.
Did Aston Villa win the FA Cup in 1887-88 after beating Small Heath?
No. Villa were knocked out in the fifth round of the 1887-88 FA Cup, going out at home to Preston North End, who won 3-1 on 7 January 1888. West Bromwich Albion won that season’s competition, beating Preston 2-1 in the final on 24 March 1888. The Small Heath win was a second-round result on a run that ended two rounds later. It is often mistakenly folded into a Villa Cup triumph.
Why are Aston Villa called the holders in 1887?
Because Villa were the reigning FA Cup holders when they visited Small Heath. They had won the 1886-87 final on 2 April 1887, beating West Bromwich Albion 2-0 at Kennington Oval, and that trophy was still theirs on 5 November 1887. It is a different Cup from the 1887-88 competition this tie belonged to.
How big was the crowd at the 1887 Aston Villa Small Heath tie?
The attendance was about five thousand at Muntz Street. That figure is an estimate rather than a turnstile count, which was normal for the period, and no fuller gate figure survives. It was a healthy crowd for a second-round FA Cup tie in the 1880s.
Who was the referee for Aston Villa against Small Heath in 1887?
No referee is recorded for this match. Officials from this era are frequently missing from the surviving records, so the referee is simply not known. The match details that do survive are the scorers, the venue and the estimated crowd.
Did William McGregor of Aston Villa really found the Football League?
McGregor joined the Aston Villa committee in 1877 and later became a director. On 2 March 1888 he wrote to his own committee and four other clubs proposing a league, which became the Football League. Twelve founder clubs contested the opening season from September 1888, and Villa were among them. So the founding move came from within the Villa committee less than a year after this Small Heath tie.
Why is the score written as Small Heath 0-4 Aston Villa rather than Villa first?
Football results are conventionally written with the home team first, and Small Heath were at home at Muntz Street. Even though Villa were the far stronger side and the eventual winners, the home team leads the scoreline, so it reads Small Heath 0-4 Aston Villa. Writing Villa first would misstate who hosted the tie.
What makes the 1887 Aston Villa Small Heath match historically significant?
It is the first competitive fixture in what became the Second City derby, one of English football’s longest-running local rivalries. Beyond the derby, it captures Villa at a specific moment: reigning FA Cup holders, and a club whose committee man William McGregor would found the Football League within the year. The match itself was a routine 4-0; what surrounds it, a trophy already held and a league about to be founded, is what gives the date its weight.
Aston Villa Small Heath, where the Second City derby began
Strip away the later weight of the rivalry and 5 November 1887 was a comfortable second-round win by the Cup holders over a younger local club, decided by two goals from Tommy Green and one each from Brown and Allen at Muntz Street. What gives it staying power is what sat on either side of it: the trophy Villa were still holding from the spring, the Football League that a Villa man would call into being the next year, and the Birmingham club Small Heath would become. You can find more first meetings and quiet turning points in our On This Day series.
Sources: RSSSF, Aston Villa Database, Undiscovered Scotland.
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