Collymore delivers verdict on Aston Villa promotion chances

Tue 20 March 2018 19:21, UK

By Richard Parks

Stan Collymore has questioned whether Aston Villa have the “character and bottle” to clinch automatic promotion from the Championship this season.

Steve Bruce’s side’s remarkable run in which they secured 25 points out of a possible 27 had made them favourites to join Wolves in the top two this season.

But consecutive defeats to Bolton Wanderers and QPR have put a major dent in the expensively-assembled squad’s hopes of a return to the Premier League.

In column for the Mirror, former Villa striker and boyhood fan Collymore has now delivered a short but brutal verdict on the club’s automatic promotion chances.

“I got really excited when Aston Villa won eight and drew one in a nine-game run but, after back-to-back defeats by QPR and Bolton, I don’t know if Steve Bruces’s squad — arguably the best in the division — has the character and bottle to go on and finish second,” said Collymore.

Villa sit in fourth in the table on 69 points, level with third-placed Fulham and seven points behind second-placed Cardiff City.

Football Insider verdict:

It is hard to dispute that Villa’s squad is the best in the division. No club – not even Wolves – have such a galaxy of stars, but something is missing with Bruce’s team. The mentality does not seem quite right, and this could prove the decisive factor in the run-in as Cardiff refuse to let go of the second automatic promotion spot. It seems that the best Villa can hope for now is a place in the play-offs, and the nerve-shredding fixtures that accompany it.