Aston Villa 24-year-old aims dig at Birmingham ahead of Second City derby
By Aramide Oladipo
Aston Villa goalkeeper Sam Johnstone has aimed a sly dig at bitter rivals Birmingham City ahead of the Second City derby on Sunday afternoon.
Steve Bruce’s men travel to St Andrew’s as they look to secure back-to-back victories in the Championship.
Johnstone, 24, is enjoying his second consecutive loan spell at Villa Park after securing a move from Premier League outfit Manchester United in the summer.
The shot-stopper has played every single minute in the Championship this season and he has kept a total of five clean sheets in 13 matches.
Speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Johnstone aimed a sly dig at this weekend’s opponents and claimed that Villa were the better of the two sides.
“I think we’ve got the better team with more quality and hopefully that will see us through, but in a derby game anything can happen,” he said.
“We go into every game wanting to win but this game is a little bit different.
“We want to do it for ourselves but also for the fans, so we’re buzzing just as much as the fans are.”
Villa have the opportunity to close the gap on the automatic promotion places to four points with a victory on the weekend.
Birmingham have endured a tough start to the season and they are currently just one point above the relegation zone.
The last time Villa faced their bitter rivals away from home, the two sides could not be separated and it finished in a 1-1 draw.
Villa are looking to achieve consecutive wins over Birmingham as Gabby Agbonlahor scored the only goal in the last meeting between the two neighbours at Villa Park.
In other Aston Villa news, Simon Jordan has taken a huge swipe at Birmingham before Sunday’s derby and Villa fans will absolutely love it.
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