Skipper James Chester confident Aston Villa can make Championship surge

Friday night’s 2-0 win over Bolton was just their second victory in eight games and they finished the weekend still sitting in the bottom half of the table, five points off the top six.

But Chester, who netted Villa’s second in the win over the Trotters, remains confident the gap can be closed and referenced the achievement of Fulham last season as proof.

The Cottagers sat a lowly 17th in November before embarking on a run which eventually saw them pip Villa to promotion through the play-offs.

Chester said: “We all saw what happened last year with Fulham, who were nowhere near it around Christmas and then put a run together.

“There always seems to be a team that does that. Luckily for us there are still an awful lot of games to play. There are still two-thirds of the season to to go.

“Teams who have started well are perhaps going to have the blip we’ve had later on in the season.

“I think the win on Friday was important for confidence but we know the quality we have in the group and the work we are doing on the training field.

“If we put a run together we can certainly climb the table.”

Saturday’s trip to Derby begins a testing run of fixtures which includes derby dates with Blues and Albion.

Chester believes Villa will only improve as players adapt to the style of play being implemented by new boss Dean Smith.

“We have some big games coming up but we are confident in the ability we have,” he said.

“It has only been two weeks since the gaffer has been in charge and I think you can see the improvement, in spells, even if it has not been over 90 minutes.

“I am confident we are going to get better. Even with a couple of bad results we knew the performances were good and the results would come sooner rather than later.”