Comment: Plenty still in the balance but no hiding the buzz at Aston Villa

With five games to play, the play-offs are their only remaining route back to the Premier League, with automatic promotion now well out of reach.

Yet you would surely need to have taken leave of your senses not to notice the drastic difference in mood from then compared to now.

While last year a play-off place felt very much a consolation prize to the top-two finish which could and perhaps should have been snared, this time around it is the target at the end of an exhilarating chase which has seen Villa come charging out of the pack to right back in contention.

Perhaps, should the journey again end in disappointment, some might reflect on what might have been had this campaign not been such a rollercoaster ride and the ingredients to make Villa such a formidable team come together a bit sooner.

But those debates are for another day. Right now there is only hope, belief and an unmistakable energy driving Dean Smith’s team on, most particularly during a week which has delivered dramatic wins at both Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham.

Supporters of a certain age have drawn comparisons to the late surge during the 1974-75 season which saw Villa clinch promotion back to the top flight under Ron Saunders.

It is the run of eight straight wins, achieved by Saunders’ team as they finished runners-up behind Manchester United in Division Two, which Smith’s unit are aiming to match today when they face Bristol City at Villa Park.

Whatever the result, it would be a surprise if Villa were not to see the job through and claim a top-six finish, such is the momentum which has been built both on the pitch and in the stands. Right now, they feel a club united again. Nowhere was that better demonstrated than with the celebrations which followed the final whistle at the New York Stadium on Wednesday night.

As always seems to be the case with Villa, there are caveats.

True, the stakes are not nearly as high as a year ago, when the phrase “go up or go bust” was alarmingly appropriate. The presence of billionaire duo Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens and the calmer outlook off-the-field is almost certainly a factor in the different mood this time around.

That doesn’t mean there isn’t pressure on Smith and his team to see the job through, no matter how unlikely the opportunity they have created appeared just two months ago.

This summer would be nowhere near as fraught as the last should Villa be faced with another season in the Championship. It would still be one in which the club might be forced to make some very difficult decisions in relation to the playing squad’s most-prized assets. Go up and Villa would get to call the majority of their own shots.

At least in Smith, they would appear to have a head coach ready to handle whatever fate results over the next few weeks might deliver.

Villa’s charge has erased any of the doubts which had begun to build during the run of two wins in 14 games while talisman Jack Grealish was out injured.

With his team now stronger than they have been at any other stage of the campaign, fans are seeing Smith’s methods begin to bear fruit. The future is always uncertain, yet for the first time in a long time, Villa have optimism.