WE’LL LIFT THE BLUES
Warnock: Let’s mend our hearts with win at Villa
Aston Villa v Cardiff City 7.45pm NEIL WARNOCK is confident Cardiff can mend their broken hearts at Aston Villa tonight.
The Bluebirds were beaten 1-0 by Wolves in a fiery clash between the Championship’s top two last Friday when Gary Madine and Junior Hoilett both failed to score stoppage-time penalties.
Boss Warnock admits the dramatic finale in the Welsh capital has hit his team hard, but believes they can bounce back to winning ways at Villa Park.
Cardiff remain in second spot, two points ahead of Fulham and seven clear of fourth-placed Villa with a game in hand on both their rivals.
Warnock said: “If you don’t feel low after a defeat like Wolves and the manner of it, then there is something wrong with you. The only thing is broken hearts.
“We’ve got a good group of lads and we’ve had knocks this season and come back from them. You saw we never gave up until the end against Wolves and we have got six games left now.
“We’ve lost four on the trot before and always bounced back and the teams we’re playing won’t look forward to coming up against us.”
Frustrated Villa owner Dr Tony Xia has issued a promotion rallying call ahead of this evening’s crunch showdown.
With games running out fast, collecting just four points from a possible 15 has left manager Steve Bruce’s hopes of steering the club to automatic promotion hanging on a knife edge.
Xia tweeted after Saturday’s 3-1 defeat at Norwich: “Took two days to ‘recover’, still gutted, guess same as all Villans felt.
“But we have to recharge and get it going again.” Bruce now wants a reaction from his players in what looks a game they must win to stand any chance of avoiding the lottery of the playoffs in their Premier League bid. Bruce said: “We’ve got to have it in the locker and we’ve got to perform better. “We didn’t do that against Norwich and it’s difficult to swallow. “It’s not about what other people do, it’s about the accumulation of points. “And we simply haven’t got enough in the last month. We can only look at ourselves. Saturday was really poor. “We’ll never give up, but it looks like those automatic places will be difficult to get to. We’ll try again against Cardiff.”