Big-game players must stand up to see off chap in the cap...
ond leg next Tuesday and if the tie is still tight by then, the home support could prove crucial.
“If it can make a difference we’ve got to urge the crowd to make that difference,’’ said assistant boss Colin Calderwood. “Then the players have no complaints There will be moments in the play-off games when we’re maybe not in the ascendancy and we’ll need them.
“Similarly, if we are playing well it does give you an extra yard, pushes you on. Things happen a little bit quicker or easier because of the atmosphere and we’ll urge the crowd to be even more vociferous during the play-off game.”
Villa have the third-best home record in the Championship with 14 wins, seven draws and just two defeats, so they would back themselves to get a result in front of their own fans.
Not that they need it with the prize of a Wembley final for the winners, but the aforementioned Pulis factor might crank up the Holte End even more. They certainly played their part in Sherwood’s 2015 FA Cup quarterfinal win over Pulis’ Albion.
The key, of course, is keeping it competitive or getting an advantage during the first leg at the Riverside. Calderwood last week said Boro are ‘the form team’ – even though the sides have very similar recent records. Are Villa taking any momentum into the play-offs or a slight hangover of disappointment from missing out on automatic promotion?
I think the hangover has been and gone now, to be honest.
Back-to-back defeats to QPR and Bolton were costly and Villa have known since March that the play-offs were the most likely route back to the Premier League.