NEW VILLA,
TOO much, too soon, Villa boss Steve Bruce admitted after his new-look side lost the battle of two teams in the form table doldrums to Ipswich.
Villa splashed the cash during January but new boys Scott Hogan, Neil Taylor, Conor Hourihane, Birkir Bjarnason and Henri Lansbury could not solve their woes in front of goal.
They bossed the first half but were made to pay for a lack of cutting edge by Cardiff City loanee Emyr Huws’ late winner for an Ipswich side equally desperate for a victory.
Huws’ goal ended Villa’s unbeaten home record and Bruce admitted: “Maybe, with five or six new players and a different system, it was too much.
“We made huge changes in the summer, huge changes again now. Maybe it was too quick to change so much.
“The new lads who have come in are getting used to the new surroundings. They have come in at the wrong time in terms of results but we’ve got to stay with it.
“Let’s hope that we’ve gone as far down as we can. We are in a difficult period but I’ve seen signs that we are getting better even though the results aren’t there.”
Villa are now 16 points off the play-offs with 16 games left but Bruce insisted: “It’s going to be very, very difficult to achieve anything this year but you can’t give up.
“We’re quite capable of going unbeaten in seven, like we did before this bad run we are on. We just need to find a win.”
They might have, if not for an inspired start from Tractor Boys keeper Bartosz Bialkowski.
His fingertip save at full stretch to foil Lansbury was decent enough but he surpassed it from the resulting corner with a cracking low reaction save to thwart Hourihane’s thumping strike.
Bialkowski was grateful to his woodwork on 20 minutes, though, as – with Ipswich’s defence asleep – Lansbury’s short free-kick found Bjarnason unmarked 15 yards out but he rattled the bar.
After that, though, Villa laboured despite first-half injuries robbing Ipswich’s back