SHEFF WED 2
STEVE BRUCE saw Conor Hourihane give Aston Villa the lead for the first time in the 87th minute.
And he reckons his side’s brilliant comeback win is down to his players’ new-found links with the fans.
Villa twice went behind against a bruising Sheffield Wednesday but they never gave up.
And Bruce (right) believes the unity he has created between the supporters and Villa’s stars is paying off.
He said: “It’s a big win. Overall, to come here to Hillsborough and score four, you deserve to win.
“When we arrived at the club we wanted to instil mental toughness. For too long now the supporters have not associated with the team because of what has happened at the club – but they’re enjoying it now. “Even when it’s not going well, they rolled up their sleeves and got a great result.” Villa have been in wonderful form and pieced together seven consecutive wins to launch them up the table. That run came to an end with defeat last weekend to Fulham and they drew in midweek with Preston. Villa roared back in Yorkshire with a second-half showing that proves they are red-hot promotion candidates. It was anybody’s match early on but Sean Clare opened the scoring after 14 minutes with his maiden Wednesday goal. Atdhe Nuhiu did well to chest a cross down in Clare’s direction and he thrashed the ball past Sam Johnstone from 20 yards.
Wednesday went for the jugular and kept catching Villa on the break but Bruce’s men hit back through Lewis Grabban in the 21st minute.
John Terry’s unmarked header was saved by Joe Wildsmith and although he then did well to block Scott Hogan’s closerange effort, Grabban stabbed home.
Wednesday spent the rest of the half testing Villa to the limit, although referee Neil Swarbrick was a marked man after a series of dozy decisions against the home team.
But that was forgotten just before the break, when Wednesday had Lucas Joao to thank for heading them back in front as he powerfully nodded home Clare’s brilliant cross. After the restart, Wednesday got nervy and stopped playing and that raised Villa’s hopes.
And after pushing hard for 20 minutes Glenn Whelan glanced home a Robert Snodgrass cross to level again.
Now it was all Villa and nobody was surprised when Hourihane thrashed home a brilliant strike from a loose ball after 87 minutes before Snodgrass won and scored an injury-time penalty after a foul by Frederico Venanci.
Jos Luhukay rued his side’s failure to make their early dominance pay. The Owls boss said: “We had good chances to get a better result, so I’m not happy.
“I don’t criticise the moments or the situations that the referee decides. We had the chances, not the referee, and we didn’t take those chances to score.” Possession 49% 51% Shots On Target 7 10 Shots Off Target 8 3 Blocked Shots 3 2 Corners 7 6 Fouls Conceded 16 1 Offsides 1 3 Yellow Cards 3 0 Red Cards 0 0