Bruce’s Villa veterans show way forward

It was a victory for team spirit, a narrow advantage earned in a playoff semi-final through the sort of endeavour and determination that Aston Villa teams have often lacked during their slow, painful decline.

He has not always played the style of football to woo Villa fans, but Steve Bruce has drained the swamp. He has detoxified the dressing room, removing the stench of ambivalence and under-achievement that polluted the place. He has brought unity and a shared sense of purpose.

Speaking in the aftermath of this victory over Middlesbrough, Bruce revealed something that many suspected, Villa had earned an unenviable reputation in English football.

There were too many players who could either not handle the pressure of playing for the club or who did not care enough to do things properly. That is why he worked so hard to persuade John Terry to sign last summer. At the age of 37, Terry could be sitting in a television studio, but Bruce persuaded him to come to Villa to play on for another year, and he was magnificent in Villa’s defence.

“You’ve seen him out there,” said Bruce. “He was brilliant, but it wasn’t just on the pitch that I needed him. It was to deal with the dressing room and it has been toxic, at Aston Villa, for years.

“It was important people like Jack Grealish saw someone: this is how you do it. The way you look after yourself, this is what you prepare for. It is all right a manager bleating at them, but when you hear a top pro ... Glenn Whelan is the same. [Ahmed] Elmohamady is the same. [Mile] Jedinak is the same. They have been crucial to the young ones.”

Grealish was a class act as Villa ground out the win, secured with a Jedinak header, but Boro will come at them hard in the second leg. If Boro take their chances – Britt Assombalonga missed two decent ones – Villa could still slip up.

“Credit to Villa, they defended well,” said Ben Gibson, the defender. “They’re a good side and will be favourites, but there’s a lot of positives for us. We’ve won in the cup at Villa Park and drawn in the league with 10 men for 85 minutes, so there’s nothing for us to be downbeat about.” England Under-17 manager Steven Cooper feels his side fully deserved to move into the semi-finals of the European Championship after a solid two-goal victory over Norway.

Goals from Bobby Duncan and Xavier Amaechi were enough to secure a clash with either Holland or Ireland on Thursday.

Cooper will have to do without both Amaechi and Ethan Laird after both picked up suspensions, but he was pleased with the display. “Two nil, with a clean sheet, I thought we were the better team. We played the better football and we had lots of control in the game,” he said.

“They are always tight games once you get to these stages. We’ve been here before and you have to get fine margins in your favour.”

England opened the scoring after 14 minutes, when Nathanael Ogbeta used his pace down the left to cross for an unmarked Duncan, who headed past Rasmus Sandberg.

Amaechi picked up the booking that ruled him out of the semi, but he doubled England’s lead nine minutes after the restart, aiming home a low cross by Duncan. England