Unfortunately, “unprecedented” scenes once again brought football into disrepute.

Not for the first time our neighbours from across the city put themselves front and centre for all of the wrong reasons.

Whilst Villa came out the ultimate victors over ninety minutes, the game will be remembered for more unsavoury incidents.

Indeed, the actions of the pitch invader, who struck Jack Grealish with a cowardly blow to the head with barely ten minutes on the clock, have reverberated around the domestic and international game.

The fall-out of this will likely be felt in the coming weeks, but serious questions must now be asked of the inadequacies of both the stewarding and preparations of West Midlands Police.

Further to the assault of Grealish, we now know that a Birmingham City steward was removed by Police following another altercation with the player.

Though West Midlands Police were quick to praise their own handling of the broader occasion, it overlooks that a much more serious incident could have occurred with relative ease.

Against a backdrop of Birmingham having a bigger knife crime problem than London, one can’t help but feel that this was unacceptable, preventable near miss.

Grealish was able to walk away from a fierce blow to the head, fortuitously escaping any injury.

One must hope that the power brokers in the game and the authorities recognise that a very different conversation could be playing out this Sunday evening had circumstances or the outcome been marginally different.

Anyone who has attended a Second City derby in recent seasons will know the almost military precision that the event is managed by the Police.

From the deployment of drones, to having pushed the limits with regards to civil liberties by using lengthy hold-backs, there is now arguably a pre-occupation with managing two sets of supporters en-masse.

This has been to the detriment of recognising where the dangers lie. As they have always. In a dangerous minority.