Steve Bruce: Aston Villa must find cure for away day blues

Villa have won just once away from Villa Park all season and head to QPR tomorrow looking to bounce back from Tuesday’s 1-0 defeat at Norwich – a performance Bruce branded ‘pathetic’.

October’s victory at Reading – in Bruce’s second game in charge – remains the club's only away win since August 2015 and the manager admitted it is a record which must improve.

“In my tenure we’ve played against five of the top six away from home so it’s been difficult,” said Bruce. “But if we’re going to mount a challenge to be in and around the top six, our away form has to improve. We have to resemble our home form, which right now is rock solid. We might have to change the personnel, we might have to be a bit different away from home, something I’ve done in the past. We’ll look into it. It’s my job to do it.”

Bruce, who admitted some regret at the bluntness of his remarks immediately following the Carrow Road defeat, is nevertheless demanding a vastly improved performance at Loftus Road, against a home team who have lost their last four games.

“You can’t have players at that level where they’re nowhere near what they should be producing,” he said. “Whether it’s mentality or two games in three days - I haven’t been in charge of that apart from in my first week, so was that a factor?

“I don’t look for reasons or excuses. Whatever happened at Norwich, we weren’t very good. They have to shake themselves for Sunday and put it right.”