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Steve Bruce takes swipe at 'vile' Twitter trolls as Aston Villa boss vows to silence critics

Steve Bruce has vowed to silence the critics after accusing ‘vile’ Twitter trolls of fanning the flames following Villa’s poor start to the season.

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A return of just one point from the opening three Championship games has led to Bruce fielding questions about his future with the season only a fortnight old.

The 56-year-old is under no illusions as to the need for things to improve sooner rather than later.

But he has also been stung by the criticism directed his way by some commentators on social media, which he believes have helped to distort the levels of discontent.

“The frustration for me is that social media now is vile,” said Bruce. “Thankfully I don’t read it. But I hear snippets.

“It borders on ridiculous but I suppose that is the society we live in. Everyone has their say, don’t they?”

He added: “There is nothing you can do apart from win on Saturday to shut the nonsense up. There has been a lot of nonsense but you remember them.

“You think well, I will remember what they said a few weeks ago and hopefully shove it down their throats.”

Villa owner Tony Xia regularly interacts with supporters on Twitter and some reports this week have suggested the manager has only three games left to save his job.

Bruce does not believe that to be true and is confident he will soon get things back on track, pointing to the need for the club to achieve stability after years of continual change.

The former Blues boss became Villa’s fifth permanent boss in the space of just 20 months when he replaced Roberto Di Matteo last October.

“The big thing when I took the job was that there needed to be stability, continuity and common sense,” he said. “Right now we need all of those things.

“Otherwise the club lurches into turmoil once again and there’s more change. Change becomes expensive and ridiculous if you use it too often.

“It’s had that over the last five or six years. It doesn’t work.

“With all the doom and gloom and the negativity, it engulfs us very quickly.

“I have to be bigger than all of that and get us on with the task ahead.

“I never thought it would engulf us so quickly after having a bad week. But that’s the way we are.”

The summer capture of former Chelsea captain and five-time Premier League-winner John Terry saw Villa ranked among the pre-season favourites for promotion.

Back-to-back defeats at Cardiff and Reading, which left Villa sitting 23rd in the table, have ramped up the pressure ahead of Saturday’s home game against Norwich.

But Bruce believes there is still plenty of time to make up the ground on the early pacesetters.

“I am not worried one jot at this stage. We have only just started,” he said. “Every manager loves to get off to a good start. It is always easier if you get off to a good start.

“I remember when i was managing Birmingham we got off to an awful start. I had to get four points out of the next two games and got beat in the first one.

“I said to the chairman I don’t think I am going to get four points on Saturday. We lost that one and all and then went on to win 12 on the spin. It is always there or thereabouts.

“Newcastle lost the first two games of last season and went on to get promoted easily. There is still a long, long way to go.”

He added: "We are all hurting. We are all disappointed. We have had a bad week.

"It is not like we have had a bad six months. I have only really been in the job six months, maybe ten months but three of those months we don’t play. There is still a lot of clearing up to be done. I am determined we will get it right."