Steve Bruce: Aston Villa aiming to get promotion push back on track at Bolton

Villa visit the Macron Stadium for a 5.30pm kick-off aiming to get their challenge for a top-two finish back on track following Tuesday’s shock 3-1 defeat to QPR.

The defeat brought Bruce’s men quickly back down to earth after the euphoria of last weekend’s 4-1 win over leaders Wolves.

And Bruce said: “This past week, for me, has summed up the Championship.

“It takes you to the highs on Saturday and then kicks you in the balls on Tuesday.

“I have said it many times. It is a physical endurance marathon, a test week-in, week-out.

“There is no gulf in this division, like you get in the Premier League. That makes it a difficult race and an intriguing one.”

Villa find themselves seven points behind second-placed Cardiff with just nine games to play but Bruce, who has four previous promotions to the Premier League on his CV, believes the race is far from finished.

Victory at Bolton – who are in the thick of a relegation battle – would see Villa cut the gap on Cardiff to four points ahead of the Bluebirds’ trip to Derby tomorrow.

“In my experience, there’s going to be many twists and turns yet,” said Bruce. “We have to handle it. I would rather be seven points in front, that is for sure.

“But there is still a long, long way to go. We have just seen how quickly it changes in a week. It is another big weekend.”

Bruce claims his team are still capable of hitting the points target he set at the start of the season.

He added: “Can we get the points target we have set ourselves to get? If we get it and others get more than us, you have to say well done to them.

“All year we have set a target – can we get to this amount of points. If we get there and others get more, we have to accept they have been better than us. We will see where we get to.”