 He was part of the Villa side that were relegated under Billy McNeill in 1987, but helped them win promotion under new manager Graham Taylor a year later.He came close to winning a league title medal in 1990, but Villa were beaten into second place by Liverpool.However, when Jozef Vengloš became Villa manager at the start of the 1990–91, Birch found himself out of the team and was sold to second flight team Wolverhampton Wanderers in January 1991 for £400,000 where he joined up with former manager Graham Turner (who had been at Villa Park from 1984 to 1986).