Villa’s chances of automatic promotion are diminishing.
Former Aston Villa striker Kevin Phillips has claimed in his Express & Star column that he still expects Steve Bruce to give Villa every chance of promotion to the Premier League – but it will have to be through the play-offs.
Villa have dropped to fourth in the Championship table and are seven points behind Cardiff City after a stuttering run of form that has seen Bruce’s men win just once in five games – losing to QPR, Bolton and most recently Norwich.
The Midlands giants face a huge test in playing host to second place Cardif at Villa Park on Tuesday night, in a match that is sure to have a huge effect on the top of the Championship table come the end of the season.
Phillips, who is Derby County’s assistant manager and played for Villa for one season during 2005-06, reckons Villa’s hopes of automatic promotion are out the window but expects them to be in good form going into the play-offs.
“It’ll be a slight concern, but Steve Bruce is a wise old manager who will be able to get his team back on track before the end of the season. Automatic promotion is now probably out of reach, but I still expect them to enter the play-offs in good form,” Phillips said.
“Hopefully we’ll [Derby] be there to meet them, and a win on Wednesday would go a long way towards that. It should be an absolute cracker.”
Jonathan Kodjia returned to the Villa bench against Norwich and could be in line to start against Cardiff, while Glenn Whelan was also on the bench. Alan Hutton remains injured.
Three points for Villa would see them close the gap between themselves and Fulham to just two points, if Slavisa Jokanovic’s men suffer a surprise loss to Reading.
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