Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce slammed his players for gifting Derby County all three points in their crucial Championship encounter at Pride Park yesterday.

An error from Glenn Whelan allowed Matej Vydra to play in Andi Weimann for the opener, but it had been coming after a sloppy start from the visitors.

Despite having more of the ball, Bruce’s side, playing without a recognised striker, failed to really test the Rams and in truth Derby should’ve scored before they did.

Afterwards, the ex-Hull boss revealed his anger at his team when speaking to the Birmingham Mail. “I can’t remember us making that many mistakes all season. From the very first minute we put them through and didn’t really recover.”

Individual error is something we have to eradicate because we’ve made far too many mistakes. When we analyse it, we’ve huffed and puffed but we’ve gifted them the game, really.”

Whilst he was critical of the team, Bruce refused to single out Whelan for his mistake. “It is part and parcel of football. We’ve all made them.”

Glenn is an experienced international football and there’s nobody more disappointed than he will be today. However he’s been very, very good for us and he will continue to be.”

The Verdict

You can’t argue with anything Bruce says here, although he also has to have a look at himself as the team selection was a risk and it backfired.

Playing with a recognised striker would’ve given more of a threat in the final third, however it doesn’t change the individual errors that senior players such as Whelan made.

Bruce can’t legislate for that however he needs to be getting better performances out of a talented team. It was a bad day all round.

Thoughts, Villa fans? Let us know in the comments below.