Villa humiliate Birmingham in derby

LONDON, England -- John Carew and Ashley Young grabbed two goals apiece to keep Aston Villa in the hunt for a European place and leave local rivals Birmingham deep in relegation trouble.

Villa closed the gap on fifth-placed Everton to just three points with a 5-1 win at Villa Park that leaves Birmingham in the bottom three.

Martin O'Neill's men will move above Everton if they win next week's clash at Goodison after three successive wins which have netted them 15 goals.

Watching England head coach Fabio Capello would have been impressed with the performance of midfielder Gareth Barry, who has been linked with a move to Chelsea or Liverpool, and flying winger Young.

Young broke the deadlock with a stunning goal after 28 minutes -- his seventh of the current campaign -- volleying home after Barry had seen his low cross cleared.

Villa doubled their lead through Norwegian Carew's 11th goal of the season after 42 minutes as he headed home from Young's free-kick.

The second half followed a similar pattern as Barry squared for Carew to make it 3-0 in the 53rd minute and a Young solo goal completed his double just after the hour mark.

Mikael Forssell, who came on as a replacement for an unhappy Mauro Zarate, scored a consolation for Alex McLeish's men, but Gabriel Agbonlahor completed the rout with 12 minutes remaining.

In Sunday's late match, 10-man Portsmouth failed to reclaim sixth place from Villa after losing 3-1 at Manchester City.

City striker Darius Vassell opened the scoring in the 11th minute after a mix-up between visiting goalkeeper David James and central defender Sol Campbell allowed former Portsmouth forward Benjani to steal the ball.

Winger Martin Petrov made it 2-0 just two minutes later when he collected a pass from makeshift right-back Elano and eluded Lauren before his stabbed shot took a deflection off the inside of Campbell's thigh to leave James wrong-footed.

John Utaka pulled one back for FA Cup finalists Portsmouth in the 24th minute after Jermain Defoe headed on Sulley Muntari's cross, but then the visitors had defender Hermann Hreidarsson controversially sent off after tangling with Vassell four minutes before halftime.

Striker Defoe appeal in vain for a penalty after being brought down by Richard Dunne, who later went off injured, then midfielder Muntari hit the right-hand upright and Utaka also found the woodwork from the rebound.

Zimbabwe international Benjani, who left Fratton Park to join City in January, sealed victory in the 74th minute with just his second goal for the club after bursting past Sylvain Distin and beating James at the near post.

The result left Portsmouth a point behind Villa, while City were eighth a further two points adrift after securing a second successive win to boost manager Sven Goran Eriksson -- whose future at the club will be under review at the end of the season following a disappointing second half of the campaign.

Newcastle earlier beat arch north-east rivals Sunderland 2-0 with two goals from England striker Michael Owen.

He gave Kevin Keegan's revitalized team the lead in the fourth minute with a header from Geremi's cross and added a penalty on the stroke of halftime after defender Danny Higginbotham handled for his sixth goal in as many games .

Sunderland, who went into the match without key defenders Jonny Evans and Phil Bardsley, were left five points above the relegation zone with three matches to play.

Newcastle moved level on points with 11th-placed Tottenham -- who drew 1-1 at Wigan on Saturday -- after taking their unbeaten run to six matches.

Manchester City were at home to Portsmouth in Sunday's late kickoff. E-mail to a friend

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