Steve Bruce admits Aston Villa’s Keinan Davis stayed on 20 minutes longer than he wanted against Leeds

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Keinan Davis played the full 90 minutes as Aston Villa extended their recent unbeaten run in the Championship.

Steve Bruce has suggested that Keinan Davis would have come off 20 minutes before he actually did in Aston Villa’s draw with Leeds on Friday had he had a striker available on the bench, the Birmingham Mail reports.

Davis has shouldered the burden of leading the line for the Villans over the last few weeks, with the likes of Scott Hogan and Jonathan Kodjia both injured, and he took that responsibility on again at Elland Road as Bruce’s men went in search of their fourth straight win in the Championship.

It was a difficult night for Davis, with both sides struggling to create many clear-cut chances. But Bruce defended the youngster, suggesting that he would not have stayed on so long had he been able to throw on another forward in the latter stages.

“If I’m honest, if I’d have had a striker I’d have took him off with 20 minutes to go because he’d run his course,” he said, as reported by the Birmingham Mail.

“He’d run himself into the ground again and that’s what a young player does.”

It is certainly looking like a problem that Bruce will need to address during the January transfer window if he wants to keep the Villans in the promotion hunt in the Championship.

As impressive as Davis has been, he has scored just two goals in 18 appearances for the first-team this term, and much of their recent form has been down to the goals of winger Albert Adomah.

Of course, with Kodjia and Hogan back at some stage, the ideal scenario would be to find a short-term answer – but letting the January window close without signing another forward would be a massive mistake given their current position in the table.