Hull vs Villa: Steve Bruce's Lions must show their teeth against Tigers

Back-to-back defeats which gifted the initiative to rivals Cardiff in the automatic promotion race means there is, for now, little point in agonising over the table or the possible permutations.

All Villa need to do is win and keep winning in the hope the Bluebirds slip-up.

A strong finish is required in any case to ensure Steve Bruce’s men secure a play-off spot and a third or fourth-placed finish which represents their next target behind the top two.

Bruce thinks Villa will need to win six of their remaining eight games to stand a chance of overhauling Cardiff, though in reality their margin for error appears even tighter than that.

A team which had won ten from 12 before consecutive defeats to QPR and Bolton will believe they are capable of taking all of the 24 points left available.

Yet they must first return to winning ways at Hull tomorrow.

Bruce’s return to the club he managed with considerable success between 2012 and 2016 will understandably take much of the pre-match focus but there are plenty of other Tigers links in the current Villa team.

James Chester, Ahmed Elmohamady and Robert Snodgrass will all be familiar faces to home supporters, the latter pair being part of the Hull team which won promotion to the Premier League through the play-offs two years ago.

Neither do the connections end there, with Villa’s first-team coach Steve Agnew and goalkeeping coach Gary Walsh both having once sat in the KCOM Stadium dugout during Bruce’s tenure.

The club they are returning to is very different to the one they all left. The Tigers, now four managers on from Bruce with Nigel Adkins at the helm, are battling to avoid a second successive relegation.

“It doesn’t give me any satisfaction at all. It really doesn’t,” said Bruce, speaking about his former club’s plight.

“I have people who are coming back with me this weekend who worked so hard.

“We had a small close-knit team and we made sure the club had a real vibe about it.

“This Championship now is more difficult than it’s ever been. It’s always been difficult but if you don’t do your work right in the Championship, you’ll soon get shown up.

“I’ve found out just how hard it is with Villa. Big, huge clubs who have struggled year in and year out to get out of this league.

“This year has probably been a wake-up call for Hull City. If you don’t do things right, you can easily head in the opposite direction.”

One undoubted positive for Bruce is an injury situation which appears to be easing ahead of the run-in. Alan Hutton and Axel Tuanzebe, who have both missed the past few games with hamstring injuries, have now returned to training.

So too has fellow defender Neil Taylor, who missed the 1-0 defeat at Bolton with a groin problem.

Most attention, meanwhile, surrounds last season’s top scorer Jonathan Kodjia, who has returned to training after four months out with a fractured ankle.