No time for Steve Bruce to relax after first Aston Villa win

A manager with four Championship promotions on his CV knows better than most the relentless nature of the division and how the magic briefly felt in the air after the last-gasp win at the Madejski will quickly dissipate, should Villa fail to follow it up at home to Fulham tomorrow, writes Matt Maher.

Victory against the Cottagers would make it seven points from Bruce's first three games and confirm his first full week in charge as a resounding success.

Yet to achieve it, the manager will need to break another of the hoodoos which have in the past 18 months surrounded Villa like wasps around an ice cream van.

It will come as no surprise to hear the club's wait for back-to-back wins has been longer than the away win drought which finally came to a halt on Tuesday. Not since May 2015 have Villa followed up a victory with another one and their task will be far from easy against a visiting side who proved their durability by fighting back from two goals down to draw with Norwich in midweek.

Perhaps Bruce may feel he has a spy in the opposition camp in Ross McCormack, the striker who spent two seasons at Craven Cottage before making the £12million move to Villa in the summer.

Back in August, McCormack was quizzed extensively about the west London club's troubles since relegation from the Premier League in 2014.

"The time was right to move on," he said. "I had two years and I was fighting relegation the two years when the plan was to be fighting for promotion. I felt the time was right to try something new.

"I tried my best over two years but it wasn't enough. But I'm part of the failed operation at Fulham and for that I hold my hands up."

Yet while Bruce will almost certainly pick McCormack's brain for any useful information on Slavisa Jokanovic's team, it is less certain whether the Scot will get the start against his former club.

Though the manager might have described his current selection style as akin to picking balls out of a hat, there will surely be a temptation to stick with the same or at least similar side to the one which won at Reading.

Villa might have needed a bit of fortune to take three points in a relatively even contest but there was a noticeably improved sturdiness about the team. Then again, maybe a more attacking approach would be beneficial against a Fulham team who have conceded 13 goals in their last five games. Whatever the manager decides and no matter the outcome, Bruce knows at this stage it is still all about the small steps.

"We're only two games in, give me three months," he said. "I'm still determined we can make a challenge. Can we make the play-offs? That's got to be the aim."