Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has said his side did just about enough in Friday evening’s tie with Leeds United.
Hosting Paul Heckingbottom’s side at Villa Park for the game, a solitary first-half goal from Lewis Grabban was enough to secure all three points and the game did clinch our Play-Off spot for the campaign.
😀⚽️ Play-Off spot secured with 1-0 win over @LUFC
Highlights 🎥👉 https://t.co/wNOyG5wY0y#PartOfThePride #AVFC pic.twitter.com/on822luEXW
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 14, 2018
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media post game, Bruce explained.
“Overall, it was a comfortable victory. I don’t remember their goalkeeper making a save. We weren’t at our fluent best and both teams dropped off the boil a bit in the end. But we’ve done enough on the night.”
Fans are largely on board with that, although some did have some grumbles of their own on the Match Thread but there was certainly agreement with his comments about the quality of the game – there wasn’t really that much from either side.
We did edge it though and we were the far more comfortable side from a statistics point of view. The game should’ve been won by a greater margin given the chances we did create and we could’ve made life far easier on ourselves, but how many times have we said that in recent seasons.
.@AVFCOfficial completed the most dribbles of any home side in the Championship this season vs Leeds, with @JackGrealish1 responsible for 10 of 26. The midfielder was our star man with a rating of 9.51. pic.twitter.com/BXZdzSl2rs
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) April 14, 2018
Bruce also picked out Grabban’s fifth goal for us as one of the highlights and getting just over an hour into the legs of Jonathan Kodjia was also a huge plus point as we head towards the Play-Offs but three points was the aim of the evening and we made it two wins in a week, so onto the next one now.
With a Play-Off spot now secured, all we can do is now try and take the maximum return available in our final games as second spot is still within reach – however unlikely it appears.
🗣 Colin Calderwood reacts to our 1-0 win over Leeds United…#AVFC pic.twitter.com/hLkZWqgrd1
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 13, 2018
Bruce knew this, pointing to the fact that we slipped up in successive matches and we just have to hope that Cardiff and Fulham above us go through a little spell of their own. The win puts the pressure on and we certainly can’t give up as the last thing we want to do is see them slip up but not have put ourselves in a position to capitalise.
Cardiff didn’t slip up on Saturday, but Fulham did – we just have to keep our fingers crossed.
Automatic promotion was the aim and it was in our hands for a while, but the Play-Offs have the same result with the added bonus of a trip to Wembley so that now becomes the main focus and we keep looking at what others do.
✅ Back-to-back wins
✅ Back-to-back clean sheets
✅ Play-off place secured (as a minimum)Enjoy your weekend, Villans 👍#PartOfThePride #AVFC pic.twitter.com/n5xkAQyMvi
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) April 13, 2018
