Aston Villa looking to regain momentum
Steve Bruce will challenge Villa to quickly recover momentum when they resume their Championship campaign at QPR tomorrow.
Villa head to Loftus Road aiming to bounce back after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in their final fixture prior to the international break.
Bruce’s men still sit sixth and with home games against bottom-of-the-table Sunderland and Ipswich also to come in the next week, there is an opportunity to push on.
“Momentum is key to the Championship, can you get it going, a bit of a run? Can you get that confidence?” said Bruce.
“I do believe the team is starting to gel together. We understand what we require.”
Villa are assessing the fitness of several players ahead of the game including winger Robert Snodgrass, who was forced off early in the defeat to Wednesday due to two broken ribs.
Striker Jonathan Kodjia (ankle) and Josh Onomah (groin) have also missed playing time recently, while tomorrow is the first game Bruce will be without influential skipper John Terry.
The 36-year-old is not expected to be back until the New Year after suffering a broken metatarsal in his right foot.
Former Villa boss Tim Sherwood has meanwhile claimed Jack Grealish is not out of the reckoning to make England’s squad for next summer’s World Cup.
Grealish, an under-21 international, has only recently returned to fitness having missed the first part of the season with kidney damage.
Sherwood, who was at the helm when Grealish made his breakthrough performance in Villa’s 2015 FA Cup semi-final win over Liverpool, said: “Jack Grealish can handle the football, he knows what it’s like to handle the football,the ball is his friend.
“(You’d think) he’s a millions miles away from that (England team), but perhaps he’s not, perhaps he’s not a millions miles away if he can get himself noticed,” Sherwood said.
