Steve Cotterill says Birmingham deserved to beat Aston Villa

Birmingham boss Steve Cotterill believes his side deserved to win the Second City derby against Aston Villa, which ended in a goalless draw.

The points were shared in the Sky Bet Championship clash at St Andrew's, but both sides created enough chances to win the game.

"We could have [won it]," he told Sky Sports. "I know they've hit the bar with a couple of chances but they were on the counter-attack, I thought we were the better side in the second half but the stoppage in the game slowed us down a bit."

He added: "From a personal point of view it's always important when you're new into a club to not get beaten by your local rivals at home. You can see that Aston Villa have improved this year, Steve [Bruce] has had time there and now they're moulding into a team. They've got some very good players but I thought we deserved to win it."

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Cotterill won his opening game in charge against Cardiff before slipping to a defeat against Millwall last week, and the Blues boss wants his side to rise to the occasion every week.

"We caused them problems today and hopefully we can carry on doing that to other teams," he said. "I've said to the lads that it's all well and good getting yourself up for Cardiff at home when they're top of the table and for a local derby, but we had that blip in the middle there at Millwall.

"The Brentford and Barnsley games are very important now before the international break."