BRUCE PLEADS WITH VILLA FANS TO GIVE HIM MORE TIME

STEVE BRUCE admitted Aston Villa’s supporters were well within their rights to boo his team last night, before asking for time to turn their slump around. The 4,000-strong away support at the Madejski Stadium witnessed another lacklustre performance and Bruce’s problems are starting to pile up. Having been promoted to the Premier League four times in his past, Villa’s manager was supposed to work his magic with a squad that now has John Terry (right) as its captain. That has yet to show itself as Bruce’s side again showed their achilles heel away from home and the 56-year-old ‘sincerely hopes’ owner Tony Xia keeps faith with him. ‘We’ve had a horrible week,’ said Bruce, whose side also lost to Cardiff 3-0 on Saturday. ‘A horrible week. I’m the manager of Aston Villa and I expect them to boo because the results aren’t what they expect. Rightly so. They’ve paid their hard-earned money to come see their team perform and win. I understand the booing. ‘My message to them is I’ve been here many, many times and been successful at every Championship club I’ve been to. Given time, I’ll do it again. Whether I’m given that time, that’s not for me to answer. I sincerely hope so. ‘This is a big job and I’m still in the middle of rebuilding it.’ Last season’s Championship play-off final losers Reading, meanwhile, were glad the Madejski was one of last night’s games with goal-line technology available. It was needed when Adrian Popa’s shot went in off Glenn Whelan and referee Kevin Friend awarded the goal after checking his watch. Modou Barrow later made it 2-0 to Reading, before Conor Hourihane scored a consolation goal for the visitors in the 87th minute. It means Villa have now won only four of their last 43 away matches. The Midlands outfit managed just 15 per cent possession in the first 30 minutes and really don’t look like the favourites for Premier League promotion that they were supposed to be this season. Reading manager Jaap Stam, after securing his side’s first win of the League campaign, said: ‘From the start we were very aggressive. We showed a lot of quality. We made it difficult for the opposition. We should have scored more.’