START FOR PULIS
But new boss won’t go on January spending spree...
a Rudy Gestede knockdown. Later, Adama Traore emerged from the bench to a frisson of jetheeled electricity, yet Sam Johnstone in the Villa goal never dirtied his kit.
“I wanted to play with two forwards, see what Gestede and Britt were like together,” added Pulis. “You’d have hoped with those two we would have created more opportunities. But we were very, very slow in possession. We needed to move the ball quicker.”
If Pulis is eyeing improvements, counterpart Steve Bruce was happy to simply “lurch on” after a bout of injury, sickness and poor form had left Villa winless in six games.
“We’ve come here without nine players,” he explained. “Three centre-forwards missing. Two central midfielders. Two centre-halves. Two full-backs. So to get a result is terrific.”
That result came courtesy of a Boro old boy. Albert Adomah scored 26 goals in 123 games for the Teessiders before being jettisoned by Aitor Karanka following promotion to the Premier League. Awful in the first half, he came to life in the second, skinwith ning Ryan Shotton before lofting a cross to the back post that was met by the diving Snodgrass.
For Bruce, it was a sweet victory over an old friend. “We’ve been in it a long, long time, me and Tony,” he added. “He’s a very, very good appointment. He knows what he’s doing. He knows how to get teams promoted. And he’s a very good man too.
“I’m delighted to have beaten him, just as he’d have been delighted to beat me. Now I’ll go and have a glass of red with him and welcome him to the Northeast.”