Aston Villa are right in the mix for automatic-promotion out of the Championship this season.
It is fair to say that after a difficult start to life at Aston Villa, Steve Bruce has arguably done little wrong this season with the Villans right in the mix for automatic-promotion out of the Championship.
But one decision that has frustrated supporters lately is his apparent unwillingness to bring Callum O’Hare back into the first-team fold as he continues to steal the show for the under-23 side.
O’Hare has scored nine goals in 11 games for the youngsters this term and yet, has not been given a chance to add to his tally of appearances for the first-team since their FA Cup tie with Peterborough near the start of January.
With just three goals coming from strikers in their last six games, giving O’Hare a chance either up front or slightly deeper seems to make sense to a lot of Villa fans, but not so much to Bruce.
So could Villa’s success actually be the reason that Bruce has not given O’Hare a chance recently, and could it be what prevents the starlet getting that run in the team anytime soon?
Villa find themselves third in the Championship right now, four points off Cardiff City in the second automatic-promotion spot after a recent blip which saw the Villans take one point from the two games against Fulham and Preston North End.
It looks as though, if Villa are going to get into the top two, the race is going to go right down to the wire, and thus, Bruce may be less willing to take what appears to be a gamble by throwing O’Hare into the mix.
So while Villa continue to go into every game knowing that it is hugely important to their promotion hopes, perhaps it would be fair to assume that the best that O’Hare can hope for, without a significant injury crisis occurring, is a spot on the bench and potentially a brief chance to impress his manager.
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