ASTON Villa boss Steve Bruce felt his side put in their worst display since he took charge in the Blackburn Rovers defeat, adding: “we were absolutely hopeless”.

Villa have now won just four, and lost 13 of their 23 Championship away games this season and have managed a paltry 14 goals on the road.

They forced just two saves out of David Raya during the whole 90 minutes and rarely looked like grabbing an equaliser after Danny Graham opened the scoring 10 minutes after the break.

Defeat saw Villa slip to 12th place, and Bruce, who took charge back in October, was less than happy with what his side served up at Ewood Park.

“Nothing has been quite as bad as that, it’s arguably the worst we’ve had,” the Villa boss said.

“A big club like ours, to have four wins away from home is nowhere near good enough,

“Too many times I’ve seen us play the way we did today where we haven’t done enough in every department.

“We just don’t do enough, we don’t compete, we don’t take part in the game enough.

“We were absolutely hopeless and unfortunately away from home I’ve seen that too many times.

“I didn’t see us create a chance, beat a man or win a challenge.

“I didn’t see us do anything.”

Villa looked to be making a late dash for the top six after picking up 21 points from a possible 24 between February 25 and April 4.

But since then they have managed just four points from five matches ahead of the curtain call against Brighton on Sunday.

And Bruce admits the performance in the defeat at Rovers only highlighted to him the job he has on his hands.

He added: “I didn’t see us take part in the game.

“I’m not going to hide it.

“They’re supposed to be my team and they’re supposed to mirror the manager a little bit.

“Certainly what I witnessed isn’t good enough.

“And it reminded me of why I got the job here.”

Meanwhile, Birmingham boss Harry Redknapp wasn’t surprised to see Rovers pull off a win which means his side go in to the final day still needing a result to make certain of their Championship status.

He told the Birmingham Mail: “I expected it. I thought Villa were poor last week (when they beat Birmingham 1-0).

“We should never have got beat at Villa, I didn’t see much in them really.

“Stevie Bruce is a big pal of mine. He has got a big job on his hands there.

“You look at their record this year, look at where they are, look where they should be, look at the money they have spent, look at the size (of the club).

“They underachieved massively before Stevie came and he has taken over a team that needs a load of work, obviously.”