Steve Bruce: Aston Villa paid the price for not taking chances

Emyr Huws' 83rd minute strike saw the Tractor Boys escape Villa Park with a 1-0 win and extended the home side's winless run to eight games.

Birkir Bjarnason had earlier hit the bar for Villa while both Conor Hourihane and Henri Lansbury were denied by visiting keeper Bartosz Bialkowski.

Nathan Baker then had a header cleared off the line during the second half, before Huws' late strike stole the points.

And Bruce said: "It's tough at the minute and difficult because we certainly didn't deserve to lose.

"With the chances we've had, we've created enough, even though they're not clear cut ones we've had some really good opportunities and not took them.

"Again we make one mistake and we've been punished and it's one of those horrible afternoons that turns it into an awful weekend.

"We start again tomorrow and we need something to change for us."

Defeat, Villa's fifth in six games, saw them fall to 16th in the Championship and they are now only seven points above the bottom three.

Bruce remains determined to keep looking up but admitted some frustration at the overall performance and suggested he may be set to scrap the 3-5-2 formation used over the past two games.

Villa's team included debutant Neil Taylor and three players - Bjarnason, Hourihane and Scott Hogan - making their first appearances at Villa Park.

"I'd be sitting here and lying if I said yes it was a wonderful performance," said Bruce. "No, it wasn't. Maybe with five or six new players and a different system, maybe it's too much, so I'll look at that and analyse that.

"Maybe it's too quick to change. I thought the personnel we've got we'd be really suited to it but we found it difficult today."

Villa, who were without James Bree due to a knee injury, now host Barnsley on Tuesday night.

Bruce added: "We've lost our home record and our home record has stacked up. It's a tough period for us all, a really tough period.

"We've got to keep working at it and hopefully we'll turn the corner.

"I won't ever give up (on the season). "We've made huge changes again, huge changes in the summer, huge changes again now.

"We need now to work with the squad of players. It's going to be very very difficult to try and achieve anything this year, but you can't give up.

"We're quite capable like we were before this run to go unbeaten in seven or whatever it was. We've got to find a bit of form and find a win."