Aston Villa climbed into the top two for the first time this season.
Aston Villa climbed into the automatic promotion spots in the Championship with a 2-0 victory in the Midlands Derby against Birmingham City.
Albert Adomah and Conor Hourihane scored on an emotional day at Villa Park, as the Villans leapfrogged Derby County to go one point clear in second place.
Steve Bruce’s side must surely now be favourites to remain in the top two and clinch promotion back to the Premier League. Villa are on their best run of the season so far. They have won their last seven games, scoring 16 goals and keeping five clean sheets during that run.
Bruce has won promotion twice with Hull City and twice with Birmingham, so he knows exactly what is needed from his team to see out the rest of the season and get the job done.
The 57-year-old will be quietly confident his team can put a bit of pressure on league leaders Wolves, who are 12 points clear, and will no doubt use that as added motivation.
The likes of Derby, Cardiff City and in-form Fulham will want their say and will no doubt make it extremely difficult for the Midlands side. The Cottagers will host Villa at the weekend and the result of that game should gives us a good indication of the Villans’ automatic promotion credentials.
There is no doubting the quality and depth of Villa’s squad, so adding Bruce’s experience to that mix must surely make them favourites because they will be difficult to push out of the way at this stage.
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