OpinionDon’t let the Birmingham City lout guide the discussion on supporter violence – most match-going fans behave normally

I wasn’t at the Birmingham derby on Sunday when a lunatic ran from the stand and punched Aston Villa player Jack Grealish, but I was at the equivalent fixture last season and witnessed first hand the enmity between Birmingham City and Aston Villa in England’s second tier.

There, I spoke to people like Dave Woodhall, editor of the Villa fanzine Heroes & Villains for the past 30 years who told me: “It’s the only big city derby in England where one of the clubs haven’t moved on. We haven’t really grown out of disliking each other so much. There’s a sheer, unhealthy hatred.”

We saw evidence of that on Sunday and I saw it last season. Like on Sunday, the game kicked off early, partly so that the fans couldn’t spend too much time drinking beforehand.

An hour before kick-off, there was a commotion in one of the pubs where men gather and punches were thrown between two Birmingham City supporters. Kids cowered behind their parents.

It was a throwback to darker times, an oddity, as is the fact that Birmingham, a huge city, doesn’t have a top-flight club.

A decade ago I was writing a book about football derbies and travelling the world to watch them, speaking to fans, journalists, players and officials.