Manager plays waiting game over defender Samba

STEVE Bruce is yet to decide whether to offer Chris Samba a contract and the 32-year-old will continue to train with Aston Villa for the remainder of the month.

Samba was in action for Villa’s Under-23s as they beat Wolves 2-1 at Molineux on Monday night and Bruce watched on.

“I’ve got to sit down with him and his representative and see but there’s been nothing decided just yet,” he said.

“I watched Samba on Monday night. I’ve known him through Big Sam (Allardyce) when he played at Blackburn and he’s wanted to come and train. There’s this notion that he’s on trial, it’s not really a trial as such. He wants to earn a contract and we’ve given him the platform to keep fit.

“We’ll see what happens over the next two weeks or so.”

The former Blackburn and QPR defender last played for Greek side Panathinaikos earlier this season.

Meanwhile, Bruce will organise extra shooting practice for Villa’s players. The boss is frustrated with the number of chances that are going begging. Villa failed to score in the 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield on Tuesday and Bruce admits their wastefulness is proving costly. “We did everything but score a goal and if we had scored nobody would have been surprised because we were the better team,” he said. “We’ve got a horrible Achilles heel, with the amount of chances we create but we don’t take them.

“And when you’re playing against a really good team you’re not going to get seven and eight like we did on Saturday (at Rotherham).

“Against Huddersfield you’re going to get one, two or three and we had some gilt-edged ones and unfortunately missed them, which cost us in the end.

“If I’m going to be brutally honest we have to improve our finishing. In training we stick them away all day but we’ll have to keep hammering it home because it’s cost us in a big game.”