The struggling Brewers visit Villa Park today sitting bottom of the table on the heels of three straight losses. Steve Bruce said it all in his presser:

“It’s pointless going away and getting a result at Sheffield United if we can’t get the right result against Burton. We are in a good place at the moment. Let’s make sure we stay there.”

I’m not really sure what to add. With Villa sitting third just behind Derby (come on, Brentford), Bruce’s job turns to sustaining success. He’s got to keep the team focused and believing. At this point, we’ve seen Villa have the necessary quality. Now it’s about belief, consistency, and hunger.

Otherwise, I’m expecting we’ll see Axel Tuanzebe off the bench at some point, but Lewis Grabban isn’t being rushed to fitness, which makes sense.

So…Like SB says. We’re in a good place. Let’s stay there.

Over to you.

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John Clark
John is co-owner of AVL, and has followed the Villa since the '70s. A journalist by trade, he is, by most accounts, a very nice person. You can follow me on Twitter @JClarkKohoutek. It's an astonishing experience. Or a complete waste of time.

Comments 49

  8. Ian

    The red card to Brentford affects Villa’s chances of moving up in the table. A lot of reds have been challenged recently and if Brentford does and wins their challenge, does that mean it was only a yellow and the ref got it wrong? If that’s the case, Brentford will/would play a different game and, perhaps the games outcome will/would be different. Man, karma sucks sometimes.

  27. Mark King

    Annoyed as they obviously didn’t read my prediction properly I said 3-0 and Hogan Grealish and JT to score not Adomah or JC.

    How that penalty wasn’t given I’ll never know but sloppy for the goals conceded and I couldn’t understand the double sub beyond having a yellow card and giving Alex his debue.

  28. r0bb0

    Well that was a strange game.
    We played some creative, exciting football at times but just weren’t able to dominate even though we looked much the better team.
    In fairness to Burton they pressed quite high up the pitch, worked hard, and had some good passages of play.
    Jack was superb today. He’s simply a different player. You can forget the ‘lazy’ tag. . . . . . he worked as hard as anybody on that pitch today.
    Tuanzebe looked composed in the short time he was on the pitch and in halftime knock around he looked comfortable with the ball and nippy. . . . we can do with a bit of speed at the back.
    I was a long way from the penalty call but I was convinced when it happened and judging by Jack’s reaction for the whole of the rest of the game, and after the whistle, he was feeling exceptionally hard done by.
    Anyone seen any replays?

  29. r0bb0

    I see that Birmingham are now third in the form table.
    Next week, third against first . . . . quite a Derby game
    It’s going to be tense!

  30. r0bb0

    Over 33,000 there today, despite demoralised Burton only bringing a dozen fans (I exaggerate a touch)
    Keep this going and we could be seeing more full houses after next weekend’s

  32. Heroes-and-Villans

    Well its only fair to say what a bloody goal hogans first was. Superb football under a hoof it manager 🙂

    6 wins on the bounce….incredible. Not going to see that much in our lifetime much again so enjoy the moment.

    Top 2 wise nothing has changed but we look comfy in the play off positions now. Have to win all our vp games.

  35. Plug

    Delighted with the 3 points but annoyed that we didn’t put the bottom team to the sword. It should not have been that close.

    Ref was useless, we should have had a penalty. Elmo will never score a better goal. And we gave their man the freedom of the park to tap in their 2nd.

    Huge improvement will be needed for Small Heath next week or we’re going to lose. Spud can start by leaving most of the defensive players out of the squad and put attacking players on the bench.

    We were too slack and lazy today.

  36. r0bb0

    Plug I didn’t think we were lazy. Most of the players worked hard . . . I can’t even criticise Onamah for his work rate this time.
    I thought we just weren’t tight enough and tried too many things. I’m finding it hard to be too critical of that though because some of those more adventurous things they tried just looked so good

  37. Ian

    Maybe it was a game to experiment with different ideas going forward. With that bench it would seem Villa was supposed to race ahead then shut the door.

  38. Paul Pears

    All good comments r0bb0, which all mirror my own view of the game. Like everyone else, I would have loved to Burton to the sword, but perhaps it’s a good thing that we struggled a little at times, making the players realise that they have a real game on their hands next Sunday, and so do the fans.

    It is going to be a hard match, where we are going to have to fight every inch of the way.

    Anyway congratulations to Bruce and the team for another win, and another 3 points…

    Fans need to be up for it more next week as well, we were pretty quiet today. I miss the rumble of the of floorboards in the Trinity Road Stand, when everyone stamped their feet and added to the roar of the fans, was as good as an extra player..!!

  39. John Lerwill

    PP: “I miss the rumble of the of floorboards in the Trinity Road Stand, when everyone stamped their feet and added to the roar of the fans, was as good as an extra player.”

    Doug was a cheapskate wasn’t he? He should have put boards in on top of the concrete! 🙂

  40. Plug

    Next week is all about the result. A win by any means, however fortunate, will be grabbed with both hands.

    This week was about gaining on our immediate rivals. It offered a chance to close the gap on goal difference as well as points. In the event we’ve lost ground to our 3 nearest rivals (Derby, Cardiff & Fulham who all had more difficult games) in the goal difference stakes. As it is worth a point at the end of the season, it could be crucial.

  41. Mark King

    Plug -quite right mate we need to address every avenue for the seasons end.

    Oh and Robbo if we had been good enough to have beaten some of those top teams and particularly Derby earlier in the season as I pointed out at the time there would be no need to worry about that game, in fact is we had beaten them they would be 5 points behind us right now so “that was” a 5 pointer at least 😉

  44. proxopera

    Thanks for the highlights John . I dont undertand the comment on Grealish though , he was running into a pocket to have a shot and the defender stone-wall tripped him ! It was’nt like he was ‘maybe’ pushed or held , the defenders foot across his foot caused him to fall over . I doubt he could have remained upright even if he wanted to .

    Mark ,
    I think talks of an England cap are very premature . I dont think there are too many players like him in english football but he’s quite pedestrian at times. Madison of Norwich is much more likely to get in the side before him at the minute.

  45. Mark King

    I personally think it was a penalty JL as the player hangs a leg out and catches Jacks and jack still had control of the ball, he hadn’t kicked it away and gone over the chaps leg, the tackle was poorly timed, jack had beat him but he doesn’t throw himself down imo, in fact their player makes contact and denies him a shooting chance no matter how soft it looked. I thought the ref was over zealous in booking him too. The Burton Manager certainly thought it was a let off from the sidelines as he was laughing at the decision.

    Brain fart from Elmo and I think JT caught napping with that through ball that might of also caught snodgrass on the way through.

  46. Mark King

    hello Prox- I have not seen much of Maddison but I think Grealish offers something as a dribbler in international games to get past the constant sitting back of teams when England play them, he certainly does it for us.

  47. proxopera

    I’m flying in for the QPR match with my son , his ‘debut ‘in villa park ,. Obviously , his first game will have to be from the holte end and i was wondering if any of you regulars think it will be safe enough to get tickets on the day from the store in new-street .?I know attendances are up but i got tickets for a chelsea game a few years ago on the day so i’m guessing it should be ok. As usual your guidance is much appreciated.

  48. John Clark

    Good to see you, Prox…Just put a match review up, but I’ll make sure your question gets carried over to the next post.

    And hope you and your son have a great day out at VP! My boy finally got his first home game in back in the season opener. Had a great time, despite the second half.

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