Villa revival proves Bruce was right to turn back on beach

SHOULD I have stayed on the beach? That would have been one of the questions Steve Bruce asked himself when his Aston Villa side laboured through the dark and depressing winter months, writes Gregg Evans.

All the hard work in October and November went to waste as Villa fell into an almost-fatal decline at the turn of the year.

For a brief period Bruce was feeling the heat from the stands when he could have been soaking up the sun.

He cut short a planned year-long sabbatical to take the Villa job and only in the past few weeks has that decision been justified.

Incredibly, Villa’s season still isn’t over, despite the horror shows at the start of the season and the turn of the year.

And if they can record a faultless finish, the play-offs could still be within reach.

Bruce’s stop-start Villa tenure has been split into three chunks.

Unbeaten for the first seven games he was labelled as the saviour after picking up 24 points from a possible 36. Then came the disastrous run of ten games without a win, which included eight defeats and an FA Cup exit.

Losing Jonathan Kodjia to the African Nations and Mile Jedinak to injury were major factors but since their combined return Villa have been unstoppable.

Seven wins out of eight has kept the play-off dream alive and Bruce will now need an even better fourth period to achieve that aim.

That run-in starts at Burton Albion on Saturday and it’s almost like knock-out football now in B6.

If, or when, Villa lose, their season is all but over as the games are now quickly running out.

There’s a new-found confidence and resilience in the Villa pack and finally the minority of doubters have been won over by Bruce.

It’s too early to assess his season in full but clearly there are shoots of recovery. And, with 18 points still to play for, there could be even more reason to celebrate in the coming weeks.