Steve Bruce: Top six may be gone but Aston Villa wins important
Conor Hourihane and Steve Bruce insist Villa must start stringing victories together now – even if it may be too late to reach the play-offs.
Villa's defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday left them 13 points shy of the play-off places with 17 matches of the Championship season remaining.
But new signing Hourihane and boss Bruce know the importance of building some momentum whatever the outcome of the season.
"We're going to have to go on a fantastic run," said the midfield capture from Barnsley. "That has to be the aim until it's mathematically impossible.
"But instead of making it a project from pre-season next season, maybe we should make it a project for now.
"We can maybe gain some months on teams going into it next season if we don't do it this year. The club have spent a lot of money on good players for a reason."
And Bruce added: "We will never ever give up. We can't.
"But we've got to be realistic. We've got to put something of a huge run together. It's up to me now to try and get a bit of stability into the team. We've made something like 40 changes in two transfer windows, it's huge. So we've got the makings of a very decent team I think."
