Steve Bruce admits Aston Villa work lies ahead following Wolves draw

The manager also questioned the fitness of some players after admitting his team had "tired badly" during a second half dominated by their West Midlands rivals.

Villa led early through Jonathan Kodjia's spot-kick but Wolves pulled level when Helder Costa netted a penalty of his own and then had numerous chances to win it as the hosts clung on.

And Bruce, who has replaced Roberto Di Matteo in the Villa Park hotseat, said: "There's a lot of work to be done and that's probably why I'm sitting here.

"To be fair to them, their attitude and the blocks and the saves that we made late on, you couldn't fault.

"But we tired badly, which was alarming. We had two people Micah (Richards) and the captain struggling with injuries which affected us a bit because it would have been nice to bring on big Rudy Gestede or Jordan Ayew or Leandro Bacuna, something to give us a little bit of spark.

"Unfortunately with having to make the substitutions that we had we had to make we couldn't really change the game a little bit which was disappointing.

"I wouldn't like to say it against any other manager but it is fair to say that some can be in better condition and I think that's only right."

He added: "I can understand now why they concede late. It's blatantly obvious. We'll go to work on that."

Villa now head to Reading on Tuesday night and Bruce admitted his players must raise the intensity.

The manager also admitted he made a mistake in playing Mile Jedinak following the Australian's international exploits. The midfielder was substituted just ten minutes into the second half and Bruce said: "In hindsight the reason I didn't play Ayew and Bacuna is because they were on huge big flights - and probably Jedinak too.

"He's just got back from Australia and got back yesterday morning. Maybe I should have left him alone, but I wanted his experience.

"It's fair to say it's very difficult for all of us to fly back from Australia, to try and perform in a big football match was a mistake by me."

He went on: "We'll do everything we possibly can to make us better equipped to go and play in the Championship.

"Because to play in the Championship now you have to have the intensity about your play, just as much as the big league.

"It didn't used to be the case but it is now. With the statistics and the science we've got we've got all the evidence of that and we can prove that to them with where we need to be."