The former Aston Villa striker previously claimed his old side could steal second place from Cardiff City and join Wolverhampton Wanderers in next season’s Premier League.
Stan Collymore has had a swift change of heart regarding Aston Villa’s promotion chances. Earlier this month, the former Villans striker told the Birmingham Mail his old side could absolutely finish second in the Championship this season, behind Wolverhampton Wanderers – whom they later thrashed 4-1 at Villa Park.
But after consecutive losses against bottom-half sides Queens Park Rangers and Bolton Wanderers, Collymore has expressed doubts about Villa’s ‘character’ and ‘bottle’.
Writing in his column for the Daily Mirror – which appears on page 49 of Tuesday’s printed edition – the 47-year-old said: “I got really excited when Aston Villa won eight and drew one in a nine-game run but, after back-to-back defeats by QPR and Bolton, I don’t know if Steve Bruce’s squad – arguably the best in the division – has the character and bottle to go up automatically.”
Aston Villa are now fourth in the standings and seven points behind second-placed Cardiff City, who have a game in hand on the Villans. However, Bruce’s side do welcome Cardiff to Villa Park in April, for a game which could define their automatic hopes.
Should they fail to catch either the Bluebirds or Wolves, Villa can at least take heart from the fact their manager has twice gained promotion in three play-off attempts – once with rivals Birmingham City and the other with Hull City.
However, they may still require some of the character and bottle that was mentioned by Collymore.
Are Villa’s hopes over of catching Cardiff and Wolves?
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