Ridgewell glad of Young absence

Ridgewell: Text taunt

Birmingham's Liam Ridgewell has admitted he could not resist a jibe at former team-mate Ashley Young ahead of Sunday's Second City derby.

Young was shown a second yellow card in Saturday's FA Cup win at Sheffield United after a lunge by the Aston Villa winger.

Villa are looking to avenge their Carling Cup defeat by Blues when they travel to St Andrews for Sunday's lunchtime kick-off.

And Ridgewell, who left Villa for Blues in 2007, was relieved to discover he won't be up against the pacy England international.

"I texted him after he got sent off," he said. "He was being a bit enthusiastic at Bramall Lane!

"Ashley being suspended is no bad thing for us. He'd have been looking forward to playing in the game.

Capitalise

"Hopefully we can capitalise on that. He is a big-game player and if he is not playing that is obviously a bonus."

The two sides drew 0-0 at Villa Park in October and last month's Carling Cup quarter-final at St Andrews was marred by a pitch invasion as Birmingham fans celebrated a 2-1 victory.

Ridgewell is now relishing another derby clash, with just one point separating the bitter rivals at the bottom of the Premier League table heading into the business end of the season.

"Being an old Villa boy, it is going to be special for me," added the 26-year-old defender.

"It was well documented what happened last time.

"Hopefully we can just be talking about the game instead of the crowd."