Steve Bruce: Aston Villa young guns have big part to play

Teenagers Callum O’Hare and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy were among those to feature in Villa’s 2-1 win against Colchester United in the Carabao Cup first round tonight.

And the Villa boss has indicated he will look to those bright prospects to turn out for his side in their Championship campaign this season.

“They’re the future of the club, because the situation we find ourselves in at the moment we’re not in the position to spend millions of pounds (on players),” Bruce said.

“It’s vitally important we’ve got something that can give us a hand coming through and thankfully four or five of them they’re going to have a big part to play going forward.

“It was O’Hare’s debut and I thought he was terrific. He runs and he covers enormous distances, he’s clever on the ball and he made our first goal, I’m delighted with him.”

Scott Hogan’s seventh-minute strike, coupled with an own goal by Colchester’s Frankie Kent, was enough to send Villa into the hat for the second-round draw tomorrow night.

There had been question marks raised earlier in the day as to whether the tie in Essex would go ahead, with Bruce describing the treacherous conditions which greeted him and his side at the Weston Homes Communty Stadium as up there with some of the worst he has experienced.

“I don’t think I can say I’ve witnessed playing in conditions like that for a long, long time,” he said. “It reminds me of when I was at school in the middle of winter.

“We had winds howling off the pitch, it’s quite remarkable, and of course it was a cup tie littered with mistakes and it’s obviously made it a leveller.

“Colchester gave us a hell of a game and we’ve needed our goalkeeper (Jed Steer) to make three, four or even five saves and good for him.

“I made a calculated gamble playing people who hadn’t played for a long time and then of course I made up (the squad) with 18 or 19-year-olds, which they’ll remember, it’s good for them.”