Villa’s gift of the Gabby

The No.1pullout that scores EVERY time HITMAN TO BOSS IT

STEVE BRUCE will name Gabby Agbonlahor as Aston Villa boss for the day to try and beat the Blues.

The striker, 31, has a calf injury and is not fit to face arch-enemies Birmingham at St Andrew’s tomorrow.

But with five goals in 10 games against Birmingham in the past, Bruce will turn to the hitman to give his team talk.

“I think he will want to come in the dressing room, in fact I’m sure he will,” said Bruce.

“Maybe we’ll make him manager for the day, how about that? I know Gabby will think, ‘I can do a better job than you’.

“So that’s the quote – Gabby is ®Êby TIM NASH not fit but he’s going to be manager for the day and right by my side.

“He will be my security guard – so they can have a go at him before they have a go at me.

Influence

“Gabby handles the occasion, he rises to it, and it’s a shame he’s not playing for us.

“But he’ll help and play a big part and he can have an influence in what to expect.

“Gabby has the passion for it. He knows what derby games mean because he’s a local lad who’s been successful in them.”

Blues chief Steve Cotterill admits this derby tops the lot for him as a manager.

“Experiencing it last year, it just might be the biggest,” he said. “I want to experience it now with our fans behind us.”

And Cotterill insists his players are revved up after getting the Millwall defeat out of their systems.

“In the first part of the week, I don’t think there would have been a good mood,” he said.

“We went through the game to get that out of our system.” FLEETWOOD welcome back Cian Bolger from a ban. Conor McAleny will also start against the club he scored 10 goals in 14 games for last season.

Rob Hall (knock) is back in contention for Oxford, while Dwight Tiendalli (hamstring) is also back in the squad after a lengthy injury lay-off.

TALKING THE TALK: Agbonlahor will fire up Villa team

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