Steve Bruce tears into sloppy Aston Villa after Cardiff defeat
Steve Bruce was left fuming at Villa's first-half no-show and warned his team's mentality must improve after they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Cardiff City.
Joe Ralls' first-half strike condemned Villa to a third loss in four away games and they now sit sit seven points outside the Championship play-off positions.
Kenneth Zohore also hit the bar as the hosts dominated the opening period and though Villa rallied during the second half, with Ross McCormack hitting the woodwork, they were unable to find a way back.
And Bruce said: "The start was that slow we stopped. It was disappointing.
"The first-half in particular unfortunately, we seem to have it in our locker. That is twice, three times away from home in six or seven games where we haven't really done the basics well enough.
"Cardiff are going to ask you every sort of question, particularly defensively, and we just have not done enough.
"The second half was much, much more like it. The disappointing for me is why did we start the first half like that.
"If we run out of juice in the second half because we have played three games in six days then fair enough. The first half performance was nowhere near the level required."
Bruce believes his team must improve their mentality if they are to sustain a push for the play-offs.
He added: "If we don't find it then we can't achieve what we want to do.
"Second half was much more like it. Yes, we made mistakes and yes, we could have done a bit better in certain situations but at least we looked as if we were putting up a fight.
"The first half our performance was nowhere near good enough. Mentality is the big thing."
