Dean Smith has seen a mixed bag of results during his time at Aston Villa so far, and he'll be looking to try and get his club into the top six sooner rather than later.

Only a handful of points off of the play-offs, Villa can still get in if they get on a good run - but they've seen both poor and decent patches of form in recent months.

Here, then, we spoke to Ian Holloway to grab his take on how tough it is in the Championship when both such runs are easy to go on.

Speaking exclusively to Football League World, he said:

"I think if you analyse the Championship you'll get little runs.

"You'll get good little runs and bad little runs and as long as you don't let the bad ones get to you you'll end up having another good one soon enough.

"That's how it is. It's very difficult to string a batch of results together - like Bristol City have - because the level is so so tough.

"It's like if you're a boxer. If you've got a fight this week, a fight next week and another one the week after; they're all so close together you would never pick those ones that can knock you out every week because it would be so tough.

"That's what it's like in the Championship, but I think Villa will be top six contenders."

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