Conor Hourihane: Winning streak has got Aston Villa feeling unbeatable

Steve Bruce’s men have marched into the Championship’s top two after emulating the club’s best run of league form since 1990 and sent confidence levels at Villa Park soaring.

Hourihane, who netted a spectacular strike in Sunday’s 2-0 Second City Derby win over Blues, said: “To win seven a row, in this league, is not easy.

“You do feel a little bit unbeatable and you know teams are fearing us a bit because of the form we are in.

“We have flown up to second, all of a sudden, winning these games on the bounce.

“We are still working hard, there is no time to rest on our laurels. There are 15 games to go and we will be trying to win as many as we can to make sure we win promotion.”

Villa were nine points adrift of the automatic promotion places as recently as Boxing Day but Sunday’s win saw them climb above Derby County into second.

This Saturday sees them head to fifth-placed Fulham, another team in superb form. The Cottagers are unbeaten in their last nine league games, winning seven.

Hourihane admits that, having spent the past few weeks pursuing Derby, Villa must now get used to being the target themselves.

“There is going to be a different type of pressure now,” he said. “We are used to be chasing and now people will be chasing us.

“But we have the right characters in the dressing room to handle that. It’s great to look at the table and see we are second. But there is still a long way to go.”

He added: “It wasn’t easy to get out of the losing mentality. We brought in fantastic characters over the summer to change that and everyone has been plugging away to change it.

“Lucky enough for us we have been changing it at the right time of the season.”