BLUE AT HEART

Allsop's flving the flag for his hometown club

- Neil Moxley

IT'S difficult to believe that Ryan Allsop ran the gauntlet in an Aston Villa-supporting school during his younger days.

Broad, lean and standing 6ft 2in, the days are long gone when he was picked on for wearing a Birmingham City replica kit.

And he will have the last laugh on the cruel taunts of his fellow scholars when he turns out for his hometown club in the Vertu Trophy Final against Peterborough at Wembley this afternoon.

More than 50,000 Blues fans are likely to be there and, under any other circumstances, the keeper would be one of them.

Allsop said: "I lived in Great Barr. It's Villa territory. Me and my two best friends were the only Blues fans.