Villa Park boo-boys told to lay off Birmingham City star

Apr 25 2010 by Andy Walker, Sunday Mercury

STEPHEN Warnock has called on Villa fans to lay-off Second City derby villain Craig Gardner – insisting that the midfielder was right to move to Blues.

World Cup-hopeful Warnock, who made his Villa debut in a new-look back-line during September’s derby at St Andrew’s, is gearing up for this afternoon’s crunch showdown knowing that a Champions League dream as well as local pride could be at stake.

It is the 108th league meeting between the two Birmingham clubs and the first at Villa Park since Blues were on the end of a 5-1 thrashing in April 2008.

On that occasion Alex McLeish’s entire team were in for a hard day, but one man is likely to be singled out by the crowd at Villa Park this afternoon.

Yardley-raised Gardner risked the wrath of the Villa Park faithful from the moment he signed for McLeish’s men in January and swiftly declared his lifelong love for Blues.

Gardner has previous experience of the Second City derby. He played 66 minutes of Villa’s 3-1 victory on home turf in April 2006 and watched from the St Andrew’s substitutes bench in November 2007 and September 2009.

However, this is the first time he will be in the royal blue camp and he is expected to be on the receiving end of plenty of stick fromVilla supporters.

Yet Warnock has jumped to the defence of his former team-mate and insisted that he gave long enough service to the Villa cause to warrant a warm welcome.

Versatile Gardner had slipped well down Martin O’Neill’s pecking order by the time he ended his long association with the club.