Bullish Steve Bruce sets sights on Aston Villa promotion
Steve Bruce insists he is confident he will secure promotion at Villa – as the Second City derby against Birmingham heads for a sell-out.
Bruce has turned his attention to mounting a tilt next season after this term's slim hopes were extinguished by the draw at Burton on Saturday.
But Bruce was bullish about his capabilities. "I am always confident that I can put a team together that can get out of this division. I have done it before and it would be terrific to do it here," said the boss. "It's never going to be easy because of who we are. We are the big scalp in this division. Everyone wants to turn us over.
"All the teams that come to Villa Park want to perform on the big stage and in the big arena. So all the bits and pieces make it difficult.
"But I am quietly confident that we will be able to mount a challenge and hopefully we will be good enough."
The boss also revealed Birkir Bjarnason is likely to feature before the end of the season after a knee injury at Rotherham in early March. And the club yesterday announced it had just 50 restricted view seats available for the clash with fierce rivals Blues at noon on April 23.
