Steve Bruce slams Aston Villa performance after 'rude awakening' against Cardiff City

Former Wolves youth product Nathaniel Mendez-Laing bagged a brace and Junior Hoilett was also on target as Villa experienced a sobering afternoon in Wales.

And Bruce did not mince his words when assessing the performance.

“The first 20 minutes there wasn’t much in it and the first goal was a poor mistake,” he said.

“After that it was on the edge of embarrassing, I have to be honest. It is a rude awakening for us.

“As far as I am concerned I think it is the biggest drubbing I have ever had in the Championship. We simply didn’t do enough of the basics.

“It is certainly one of the biggest defeats I have had in the Championship. You get beat like that in the Premier League from time to time.

“We lost all our shape, our discipline and that is hard to come by when that is all we have worked on for the last three or four weeks.”

Scott Hogan was denied by Cardiff keeper Neil Etheridge in the opening minutes before Mendez-Laing headed the hosts ahead on the 21 minute mark.

Villa keeper Sam Johnstone pulled off several key saves to keep the visitors in the game and they almost levelled when James Chester hit the bar.

But Cardiff were relentless and got their rewards when Hoilett doubled the lead on the hour mark, before Mendez-Laing compounded Villa’s misery with his second ten minutes later.

Bruce must now quickly rally his team for Tuesday night’s trip to Reading, knowing the pressure is already on barely a week into the season.

“We have to do more,” he said. “We are Aston Villa, one of the favourites and the one thing we have to do away from home is get ready for what is coming, especially when you come here.

“It made for a really difficult afternoon. We didn’t do enough of the basics.

“We were wide open which is not like us. Of course we had two really good chances at 0-0 and didn’t take them. Overall we were well beaten and we have to accept that.”