Aston Villa fans backing Steve Bruce and Tony Xia to deliver

More than two-thirds of fans who took part in the Express & Star’s end-of-season survey are happy with the job being done at Villa Park by boss Bruce.

Close to 90 per cent meanwhile expressed confidence in Xia’s running of the club and are confident the Beijing businessman can deliver future success.

Xia’s first year at the helm following his £76.2million buy-out of Randy Lerner was largely a disappointment, with Villa finishing only 13th in the Championship, one of the lowest final league placings in the club’s history. Yet while the campaign fell well below the expectations of most supporters who took part in our survey, the vast majority gave Xia their backing.

Just over half believe Xia’s first year in charge was a success, while 85 per cent of fans expressed confidence in his running of the club, with even more confident he will deliver success in the future.

Next season is clearly a pivotal one for the club and the owner and 90 per cent of supporters expect Villa to achieve a top six finish at minimum, with exactly half of those who voted believing they will secure automatic promotion back to the Premier League. The pressure is set to be intense on Bruce from the start of the campaign, though the manager appears to currently retain the faith of most fans. Bruce replaced Roberto Di Matteo last October with Villa hovering above the relegation zone and though he was unable to engineer an improvement, their final position also represented the lowest of his near two decade managerial career. Of those fans who took part in our survey, 69 per cent claimed to be happy with the job done by the 56-year-old to date, with 63 per cent believing the team made progress during the course of the season.

New additions, however, are a must, with 78 per cent of supporters believing Villa’s current squad, left unchanged, would not be capable of mounting a promotion push.

Bruce is thought to want three or four quality signings in order to transform his team into genuine contenders and supporters agree, with more than half believing between four and six new arrivals are required. Midfield, meanwhile, is their key area of concern, with 47 per cent believing that is where Bruce most needs to focus his efforts during the transfer window.

One player who supporters would be happy to see depart, meanwhile, is Gabriel Agbonlahor. The 30-year-old, banished to training with the under-23s by Di Matteo, enjoyed a shock resurgence under Bruce, memorably coming off the bench to score the only goal as Villa defeated rivals Blues last month.

But it was not enough to win back the majority of supporters, with close to three-quarters of those who took part in our survey believing Villa should be looking to move their longest-serving player off the books this summer.

Jonathan Kodjia, who scored 19 goals following a £15million move from Bristol City last summer, was meanwhile voted the club’s best player. The Ivory Coast international claimed 46 per cent of the votes cast in our survey, ahead of skipper James Chester in second and Alan Hutton in third.

Attendances at Villa Park dipped only slightly following relegation from the Premier League, while the club was backed in huge numbers away from home.

And almost two-thirds of supporters in our survey admitted Villa playing in the Championship had made them more likely to attend matches, with a third claiming they intend to attend even more next season.

The majority believe the club’s season ticket pricing is about right, with facilities at Villa Park also given the thumbs up.