Aston Villa blog: Good times ahead after bright start under Bruce
A month is a long time in football but since I witnessed that shambles away at Preston a little over four weeks ago, things have really started to look brighter for us.
We have now won 11 out of the 15 points on offer to us in the five games since Steve Bruce took the reigns and no losses, and when you consider he had two local derbies within that run it makes it even sweeter, writes Aston Villa blogger Justin Hawthorne.
Blackburn came – like most sides will do – to sit back, soak things up and be tight, so the first half wasn't much of a spectacle for the fans with only a couple of attempts on target for both teams.
The second half started much better and with the manager's half-time chat ringing in their ears they set about upping the tempo, so to concede the opener was a surprise.
Probably, with hindsight, that was just what we needed to wake us up. We then finally started to really test them and got our equaliser when the returning Grealish won a penalty four minutes after we fell behind.
When Johnathan Kodjia duly converted the penalty, it was a matter of when, not if, we got the winner. Again it came from the sublime Kodjia.
These days we don't have to worry about late equalisers either as the back five and the ever impressive Jedinak are properly drilled on how to hold on.
Big credit to Alan Hutton, who was superb alongside Baker and Chester.
Gabby even got a good ovation when coming on – what a lovely change for everyone to be pulling in the right direction.
