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Steve Bruce: Hat-trick hero Conor Hourihane starting to feel at home at Aston Villa

Steve Bruce reckons Conor Hourihane is beginning to feel at home on the bigger stage after the midfielder’s hat-trick fired Villa to their first league win.

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Hourihane’s treble helped Villa record a 4-2 victory over Norwich which lifted them off the bottom of the Championship and eased pressure which had begun to build on boss Bruce after a poor start to the campaign.

The 25-year-old had struggled for consistency after joining in a £2million move from Barnsley back in January but netted during the 2-1 defeat at Reading in midweek, before turning on the style against the Canaries.

And Bruce said: “I’m delighted for Conor. He's only been here for six months and found it difficult to deal with the expectations.

“The same goes for Henri Lansbury. We know they're good players and we have to bring them out of their shells so they can perform on the big stage here.

“That's difficult but that's what is expected.

“We bought them in January when the two of them were the top assist-makers in the division at Barnsley and Notts Forest.

“I think they have found very quickly you have to find that bit of confidence. They have been big players at Barnsley and big players at Notts Forest. They have to take it onto this big stage.

“It is not often today you see a midfielder score a hat-trick. It was terrific.”

While Hourihane stole the headlines, the performance of teenage striker Keinan Davis also caught the eye as Villa netted four for the first time in a league game since March 2015.

The 19-year-old, handed his full debut by Bruce, did not manage to make it onto the scoresheet himself but was a thorn in the side of the Canaries defence for much of the afternoon.

Davis set-up Hourihane for Villa’s opener midway through the first-half before another teenager, Andre Green, netted his first goal for the club just before the break to double the advantage.

Josh Murphy pulled one back for Norwich on the hour mark before Hourihane bagged his second with a deflected strike.

Substitute Nelson Oliveira then again reduced the deficit but Hourihane made the points safe with his third, five minutes from time.

Asked whether playing Davis had been something of a gamble, Bruce replied: “When you throw a kid in, you know what you're going to get.

“The crowd were magnificent towards them, and that's really why I did it.

“I've done it before, down the road, at Blues with Darren Carter and at Sunderland I put in Jordan Henderson, when things are edgy.”

He added: “Davis was magnificent on Monday in the reserves. My hand was forced really. I couldn’t take the chance that Scott Hogan was not 100 per cent fit.

“Gabby Agbonlahor had a twinge in his back. I thought I would play the two young boys. I nearly played three.

“Callum O’Hare was very close to starting too. If they are good enough they will play. We have certainly seen glimpses today that they are good enough.”

Victory lifted Villa up to 16th in the table and Bruce said: “It's ridiculous to think we were lurching into a crisis again after a week.

“There's a big myth out there that I've had millions and millions to spend and that's the farthest thing from the truth.

“The club has spent millions over the last four or five years so we're a bit hamstrung with it at the minute.

“Two weeks ago we were very close to blowing Hull away if we'd have taken our chances.

“There was a time against Cardiff in the second half where it wasn't acceptable and I thought we were OK at Reading.

“So all this talk of crisis just shows you the turmoil the club has been in.

“How can you be in crisis after a week? OK, a couple of results went against us but we've got to be bigger than that.”