Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce gave a frank assessment of his side's performance against Brentford on Tuesday night, reports the Birmingham Mail.

Villa lost 3-0 to Brentford, and were outclassed by their mid-table rivals.

A brace from Lasse Vibe and a strike from Nico Yennaris secured victory for the Bees, which sees them leapfrog Villa in the Sky Bet Championship table.

Speaking after his side's disappointing performance, Bruce told the Birmingham Mail: “That’s arguably the worst, certainly in my short tenure here.

“There’s times in your career where you feel embarrassed and that ranks up there as one of them.”

The defeat was Villa’s eighth of the season, Bruce continued: “We’re so easy to play against. Every time Brentford passed they passed it through us.

“We didn’t do enough and I can only apologise.”

Conor Hourihane and Birkir Bjarnason both made debuts alongside fellow January signing Henri Lansbury in midfield, but did not have a positive impact on the game.

Bruce was again active in the transfer market on deadline-day signing Neil Taylor from Swansea and Scott Hogan from last night’s opponents Brentford.

Neither player was available to play last night, but both could be in contention to face Nottingham Forest on Saturday evening.

Defeat last night saw Villa slip to 14th in the Championship table and are set with a difficult challenge of breaking into the play-offs - trailing sixth placed Derby by ten-points.

Villa fans… Do you agree with Bruce’s assessment of last night’s defeat? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!