Henri Lansbury making a new plan at Aston Villa

Arriving from Nottingham Forest with the hope of helping spark a late season push for the play-offs, the 26-year-old and a host of other new players instead found themselves sliding towards the wrong end of the table as Steve Bruce's side lost game after game.

Saturday's 1-0 win over Derby, which eased a little of the pressure, therefore felt long overdue.

"Was it a relief? Massively," admits Lansbury. "It's been tough but the boys have stuck together. We didn't crumble.

"We went out there on Saturday, gave it our all and got rewarded with the three points.

"We showed a lot of character out there and that is what it takes in the Championship. We have to do that every week from now on to get where we want to get. We are only going to improve by doing that."

Lansbury was one of eight arrivals at Villa Park last month and the difficulties and dangers of introducing so many new faces to the mix so quickly were there for all to see during a run of five consecutive defeats, which saw Bruce's men fall to within six points of the bottom three.

The sense several of the new boys might be taking their time to settle was meanwhile confirmed by last week's revelation that six were still residing in a hotel. Lansbury recently moved out and admits to now feeling more 'relaxed' having found a new permanent place of his own. He does not, however, believe personal upheaval should be used as an excuse for some of the team's recent performances.

"It's hard relocating, it can be tough but it's not an excuse to not win football matches," he said.

"The gaffer has tried to bring in new players, changing the team. It can be difficult for the boys to get to know each other and you have seen that in some of the performances, with players running into positions they would not normally run to.

"It's hard but the past couple of games I feel we've dug in. We've been unlucky, had chances. On Saturday we took them."

Having finally secured their first win of 2017 by beating the Rams, the target for Lansbury and his team-mates is to quickly claim a second against Bristol City tonight.

Robins boss Lee Johnson was among the names initially linked to the Villa hotseat when Roberto Di Matteo was axed back in October. Four months on, with his team having lost 10 of their last 14 games, he arrives in the Midlands under severe pressure, knowing another defeat could cost him his job.

Victory for Villa would, meanwhile, give Bruce's team sufficient breathing space to start looking up the table again, rather than down.

"We just want to win as many games as we can," added Lansbury. "Whether you win ugly, or win pretty, it doesn't matter. You just have to win."

Bruce may opt to rest Mile Jedinak after admitting the midfielder, who recently returned from injury, was 'running on empty' at the end of Saturday's game.