Bruce back on the boos OWLS OF PROTEST AS VILLA CRASH

MANAGER Steve Bruce came out fighting after Aston Villa’s biggest crowd of the season booed him off.

It’s now one win in Bruce’s last eight games, including the Carabao Cup embarrassment against League One Burton, and Bruce (above) admitted: “We were poor.

“We got lifted by a wonderful John Mcginn goal to put us level, but how long did that last? Fifteen minutes?

“That’s not good enough. We didn’t play well enough. A huge disappointment. We had five, six, seven players below par and it turned into one of those awful afternoons.”

Boos echoed around the ground from Villa fans in the 35,572 crowd, while Wednesday supporters danced with delight.

Bruce has been taking stick on social media but is asking for more time. It was his 100th game in charge of Villa and he said: “That was my sixth home defeat, two of them against Sheffield Wednesday. There are some fans I will never win over, I know that.

“But today the crowd were fine. I still believe the team we have got together will be a threat in this division.

“You need time, that is the magic word we all look for, because no matter how you dress it up this is a new team.

“Players have only been here two, three weeks. They need time to settle in. Once they do they will be fine. I am convinced of that.”

But Villa don’t look at all convincing and were generally second best to the Owls. The Mcginn wonder equaliser after 53 minutes looked as if it would inspire Villa back into the game. It deserved to, a brilliant left-foot shot, hit on the volley from 25 yards, swerving and crashing in after hitting the bar near the top corner. But that was as good as it got for Villa. They laboured throughout and after an attacking flurry as a follow-up to Mcginn’s first goal since a bargain £2.75million move from Hibs, the hosts flopped again. If Mcginn is well worth his fee then others are massively underachieving. £15m Jonathan Kodjia barely broke sweat and Bruce hooked him with 12 minutes left. By then the game was lost. Steven Fletcher had missed a few chances but finally took one with a powerful 67th-minute header to add to an 18-yard Marco Matias opener on 49 minutes. Boss Jos Luhukay said: “That was our best away performance. It was very good from my team to come to Aston Villa against a good side and win. A fantastic game for us.”