Bruce expecting 'spicy' affair against Aston Villa

Many Newcastle fans still remember how a section of the Holte End revelled in the Magpies' relegation from the Premier League at Villa Park on the final day of the 2008/09 season, but now it's the Claret and Blues who are battling the drop as they head to St. James' Park for a 6pm (BST) kick-off. 

United, meanwhile, can move to 41 points - and, effectively, safety - with victory so Bruce, who managed the Villans between 2016 and 2018, knows that there's a great deal riding on the match. 

"They sacked me a couple of years ago, so I hope there's a bit of spice," smiled the Newcastle head coach, who led Villa to the Championship play-off final at Wembley before departing just months later. 

"It's difficult without supporters there, they create that of course, but we're just focused on one thing now; we want to try and finish the season strongly.

"We've given ourselves a great platform to build upon. Can we aim upwards? Can we go and catch Burnley, who were in tenth, and see where it takes us?".

Unfortunately, fans won't be able to attend the game, which is being shown live on BT Sport, but Newcastle adapted well to the eerie atmosphere on Sunday as they beat Sheffield United 3-0 in their first Premier League game since the season was suspended in March following the coronavirus outbreak.  

Villa have played twice since the restart, drawing 0-0 with the Blades last week before losing 2-1 to Chelsea at the weekend. That means they've now failed to win in seven matches, but Bruce is unsure how much weight should be given to that statistic given the three month interruption to the campaign.

"You just don't know," he admitted. "You're hoping that you're going to get a few people fit (during the enforced break) and Aston Villa have been able to do that, certainly with (John) McGinn, who was vitally important to them. But when you look at the Bundesliga, nothing's really changed in that respect so it's very difficult to judge.

"Any team at the bottom will be looking to put back-to-back victories together, or whatever, to give them a bit of leeway. I'm expecting a very difficult game. They've got some very good players and they're down there, in amongst it, but they'll be doing all they can to get a result tomorrow.

"They took the lead (against Chelsea) - it's fine, fine margins. Every team in the Premier League have got good players and Aston Villa have got some very good players, particularly (Jack) Grealish and McGinn to name two, so we'll have to be at our best to beat them - but we're confident. You can see people bouncing into the training ground this morning and yesterday."

Bruce revealed that Matty Longstaff returned to full training on Monday, but older brother Sean is not yet fit while Ciaran Clark and Florian Lejeune are also sidelined. 

But the head coach hinted that he might resist the temptation to make changes to the side which performed so well on Sunday, despite the hectic schedule that lies ahead.

"I'm sure we'll all look at the rotation and I'm sure most teams are using the five subs which we're allowed, which is a sensible decision," Bruce said. "(But) we're okay, thankfully, injury-wise. We'll see how they are again this morning and make a decision on who we make available tomorrow."

He added: "After one game I'm sure there'll come a time when there's going to be change, that's for sure; whether we have to do it tomorrow, so quickly, we'll just assess that and see how a few people are today. Certainly it helps when you can make the substitutions like we made - we made five in the end, and that's been a really good rule to help everybody concerned. 

"So we'll see. Very quickly, we got up to the levels of fitness which we required so we'll see how they recover. There'll be a time for change - whether tomorrow's early enough, we'll see."

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