Bree ready to seize his opportunity to impress
Hutton injury KO opens door to newcomer to face Wednesday
JAMES Bree is ready to slug it out with Alan Hutton for the right-back role at Aston Villa. The 19-year-old replaced the Scot in the 1-0 defeat at Huddersfield on Tuesday night as yet another casualty was added to Villa’s growing injury list.
Hutton will miss Saturday’s clash with Sheffield Wednesday and Bree is determined to take his opportunity and shine in the 32-year-old’s absence.
“You have to take your chances in football,” he said. “When I got injured last month Alan came in and I only played one game.
“Hopefully now I can stay in the team, keep progressing and see how many games I can play until the end of the season.”
Bree was signed from Barnsley in January with one eye on the future.
But having played for two seasons at Oakwell, he’s more than ready to fit straight in, if needed. A minor knee injury kept him out of a hand- ful of recent games but Hutton has now picked up a similar knock and is facing a spell on the sidelines.
“Huts has had an injury so it was the chance for me to come back in,” said Bree. “When he comes back we will see what happens.
“It will be a nice between me and him.”
Bree has made a steady start to life at Villa and is still finding his feet. He went close with the first chance of the game on Tuesday night as Villa missed three opportunities to take the lead before the break.
Had Villa arrived at the John Smith’s Stadium with their shooting boots, the outcome could have been different.
Bree reckons it’s only a matter of time before it all starts falling into place, though.
“We played really well on the night and had the better chances,” he said. “You go through those spells when they don’t drop and you competition don’t get lucky. We have hit the post, had chances. It will all come together at some point and when it does we will be banging in the goals.
“They had one chance and took it. That happens in football.
“We just have to be more clinical. We have to take our chances the next game.”
For that next game, at home to Sheffield Wednesday, Villa will be without TEN players.
There is no good news to report on the injury front as Scott Hogan, Jack Grealish, Gabby Agbonlahor, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Andre Green, Birkir Bjarnason, Libor Kozak and Ritchie De Laet are all still sidelined, along with Hutton. Leandro Bacuna is suspended so the youngsters from the under-23 team will be called upon again.
Manager Steve Bruce said: “We certainly can’t have any more else we will be playing the youth team! There won’t be anyone (who is currently injured) fit for the weekend.
“We’ll have to go with what we’ve got. We’ll dive into the young lads if we need to.”