Middlesbrough vs Aston Villa: Steve Bruce looking for a lift

All it has needed is four poor results, over the course of less than three weeks, to once more sour the mood at Villa Park.

The 1-1 draw at Leeds, which ended a run of nine wins in 12 games, was widely regarded as a positive result.

Since then, Villa have been held at home by Millwall and Sheffield United, while suffering defeats away to Derby and Brentford.

The latter result left Bruce’s team outside the play-off positions and prompted an outpouring of anger toward the manager on social media, the like of which had not been seen since mid-September, when Villa were floundering after winning just one of their opening seven games.

It all feels rather familiar and just perhaps a little premature. It should not, however, be surprising at a club where the demands are so very high.

The level of ill-feeling was enough for chief executive Keith Wyness to post a message on Twitter which both acknowledged supporter concerns and called for unity.

From a position where they looked well on course to challenge for automatic promotion, Villa’s immediate concern is to get back into the top six.

For Bruce, once more under scrutiny, the only way to ease the pressure is by racking up a win or two, though the fixture list – and fate – appears to be doing him few favours.

Tomorrow, Villa take on a Middlesbrough team who welcome Tony Pulis into the dugout for the first time. New Year’s Day then sees second-placed Bristol City visit Villa Park.

There is no point disguising the fact that, should the festive period finish as badly as it has started, the manager would be on an increasingly sticky wicket indeed.

Villa’s downturn is not without mitigation. An injury list which has almost exclusively contained top players was always likely to have an impact at some stage.

Valid questions can be asked, however, of team selections which have lately appeared a little muddled, with Ahmed Elmohamady and Alan Hutton in particular being dropped and then restored to the XI on an almost game-by-game basis.

Yet it would also be wrong to ignore the fact Villa have experienced such slumps before under Bruce only to emerge strongly.

He has already managed to turn things around once this season.

The belief within Villa Park for now is that a manager with such reserves of experience will again be able to right the ship. John Terry’s impending return should also provide Bruce with a timely boost.

The notion Villa are out of the automatic promotion race is also entirely bogus. Disappointing as the recent run has been, the margin between them and second place is closer than a week ago.

No ground has been lost, in one sense, though a big opportunity has definitely been missed.

Improvement is needed quickly, or the club’s primary aim for the campaign could indeed disappear quickly out of view.