Steve Bruce slams 'inept' Aston Villa away showing

The Villans were beaten 1-0 at relegation-threatened Blackburn Rovers, meaning they have won just two of their last 11 matches on the road.

And Bruce was in no mood to soften his criticism, labelling the performance ‘hopeless’ and ‘inept’.

He said: “If I’m going to be honest, too many times away from home in particular, we’ve managed to put in (that performance).

“I don’t think quite as bad because that’s arguably the worst we’ve played since I’ve been here, but a big club like ours, away from home, four wins all season, is nowhere near good enough to where we should be.

“Too many times I’ve seen us play the way we did today, where we haven’t done enough in every department.

“We still have to improve because we can’t be happy with mid-table in the Championship, a club like ours.

“We were absolutely hopeless. Hopeless. And unfortunately away from home I’ve seen that too many times. Not good enough and I’ve been here the best part of six months and too many times I’ve come away like that and thought, ‘Dear oh dear, that was inept’.”

Meanwhile, Bruce is sweating on the results of a scan for top scorer Jonathan Kodjia after the striker twisted his ankle on Saturday.

“He looks in quite a lot of pain, I have to say,” said Bruce. “We hope that it’s not as bad as the pain he’s in at the moment. Until we have scans and x-rays unfortunately we will not know the full extent.”