Steve Bruce delighted with 'very satisfying' Aston Villa win

Pulis cut a frustrated figure in his technical area as his first official game in charge of Middlesbrough ended in a 1-0 Sky Bet Championship defeat on Teesside.

Robert Snodgrass headed in the only goal with quarter of an hour remaining to leave Boro disappointed and three points adrift of a play-off spot.

Bruce, whose team have moved level on points with sixth-placed Sheffield United as a result of this win, said: "We've been in management a long, long time and for years we've been competing against each other.

"He's a very good appointment, he knows what to do, how to get teams promoted - and he's a good man, too.

"I'm delighted to beat him, because he was out to beat me but we'll have a glass of red wine now and I'll welcome him to the north-east.

"Considering the problems that we've had (without nine players) it's a very satisfying win.

"The response from the other night was vitally important. We lurch along, we played badly against Brentford second half and all of a sudden we're in crisis.

"We have to eradicate that as a club. We can't be just going along quite nicely and then we're in crisis. We've seen today this is a division which throws up results which leave people scratching their heads at. Let us get on with the job in hand.

"We knew we'd have to defend our box well and I think we did just that. Our defenders dealt with Middlesbrough's physicality, they must have had seven players who were six feet four so we had to stand up to the challenge.

"It's a decent end to December, which has been difficult for us."

Pulis only took over on Boxing Day and has not had much time with the players to work on the sort of shape and approach he would like.

He was disappointed with aspects of the display and has revealed he could be offloading players next month to help with his selection dilemmas.

Pulis explained: "I thought Villa did well, they played with a back four and five in front and never let us get in behind.

"I wanted to play with two forwards, see what Rudy Gestede and Britt Assombalonga were like together with Stewart Downing and Martin Braithwaite - and the quality they've got you'd hope we'd create opportunities.

"I just thought we were very, very slow at times. We needed to move the ball quicker and Adama Traore when he came on livened it up. He carried the ball and he livened the crowd, which is important in home games. He was definitely a plus.

"This squad is bigger than the one I left at West Brom, too many in my view, some you know and some you don't know. I need to assess the group.

"Steve (Gibson, the chairman) spent an absolute fortune in the summer and out of respect to him I really have to be prudent with what I do and don't, not make rash decisions.

"If it takes a bit of time it takes a bit of time but I want to be fair to Steve because he's spent a lot of money on the squad.

"There's players within the group that I've got to find out about. I've got a chance to watch a lot of games quickly. The squad is definitely too big. I don't like big squads."