Aston Villa have seen their automatic promotion hopes take a turn for the worse over the past week following back-to-back defeats to Queens Park Rangers and Bolton Wanderers, leaving the Villains with it all to do to reach the Premier League without the lottery of the play-offs.

Manager Steve Bruce has refused to rule his side out of a top two finish just yet however, although he does concede that a winning run is now something which his team needs to put together.

Speaking to the club’s official website, the Villa boss said: “We are capable of a winning run. We have just done it. We are probably going to need to win six of our last eight but it is possible. We can’t give up.

“I am just disappointed that we have given ourselves a wonderful opportunity and our last two performances in particular have not been up to standard.”

Bruce is refusing to throw the towel in on automatic promotion just yet and he demanding that his players don’t give up.

He continued: “It is not over yet. That’s for sure. We can’t give up, we simply have to get on with it.

“We’ve lost two matches in three days and other teams are capable of that too.

“We’ve lost more games in the last five days than we have in three months. We have to recover, there are still eight games to go and it’s all to play for.”

Villa will undoubtedly see April as the defining month of the campaign when they play seven games in 29 days and given the quality of Bruce’s squad very few will be writing the West Midlands-based club off just yet.

The Verdict

Very few football fans would have backed either Queens Park Rangers or Bolton to take points off of Aston Villa, but there is a real sense that more twists and turns will occur during the next month or so.

Villa boast an impressive squad on paper and Bruce is right when he says that April looks set to be a defining period for his side.

Aston Villa fans, what do you make to Bruce’s quotes? Let us know in the comments below!!!