Express & Star

Analysis: Back to the drawing board for Steve Bruce after Aston Villa blow their chance again

Not for the first time this season, opportunity knocked for Villa.

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Not for the first time, they failed to grasp it.

If Steve Bruce’s team are to win promotion next month – and their route will now almost certainly go through the play-offs – that is one trend which must be altered.

There have been various points in recent months when Villa have looked set fair to kick-on, only to falter. Each time supporters have been given a glimmer of hope and ended up seriously disappointed.

The first such occasion was when Villa beat city rivals Blues to move into the top two for the only time this term. They followed it up by taking only one point from the next two games and have been playing catch-up ever since.

Last month, however, they hammered likely title winners Wolves, a result which should have given them the belief to chase down Cardiff. Instead, they have recorded only one win in the next five games.

Saturday’s trip to Carrow Road, in truth, already found them in the last-chance saloon.

Yet things appeared set-up perfectly for Bruce’s men. Cardiff’s loss at home to Wolves on Friday evening had reopened a door to the automatic promotion race which had previously seemed as good as closed.

Indeed, with home games against Cardiff and Leeds to come, Villa knew a victory in Norfolk would open a pathway to getting back into the top two by next Friday night.

Even then they would still very much the underdogs, yet having at least heaped a little pressure on the Bluebirds and surging Fulham.

Such a notion seems almost laughable now, following a performance which ranked among their poorest of the entire campaign. It was, at they very least, the worst since the Boxing Day defeat at Brentford. Bruce’s face in the immediate aftermath suggested as much, as did his tongue, which criticised his players in a manner rarely seen.

The manager, as he has been too often in recent weeks, was left short of answers for precisely what had gone wrong.

An improvement was demanded and is needed tomorrow night against the Bluebirds.

Villa might have less to gain in an immediate sense than they might have done had they won on Saturday.

Yet the game remains vital, for two main reasons. Chiefly, a handful more points are still required to secure a top-six finish. Secondly – and more importantly – there is now a serious need to regain a sense of momentum ahead of the play-offs.

Their current form is doing little to inspire confidence. Neither does their tendency to throw in the kind of tepid performance seen on Saturday bode well for a format where a bad 45 minutes can prove fatal.

Norwich entered the game having won just one in 10 and were loudly chided by their own supporters for a lack of cohesion in the opening half.

But with the game there for the taking, Villa were unable to find a spark and when Josh Murphy bent a shot into the top corner from 25 yards out just seconds before half-time, it brought the hosts and the crowd to life.

Bruce’s team were unable to stem the flow and though Jack Grealish netted a fine strike of his own midway through the second period, goals either side from Dennis Srbeny and James Maddison meant the Canaries ended the game in cruise control.

The season rolls on, quickly. It is perhaps to Villa’s advantage they have little time to dwell.

Yet ultimately, they are going to miss out on automatic promotion because they cannot match the consistency of the three teams above them in the table.

They are still capable of hitting great highs and could well happen upon a hot-streak in time for the play-offs. Right now, however, the mood has rarely been lower.