Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce has insisted that he is not giving up on guiding the club to the playoffs this season.

The Villans have endured a topsy-turvy season back in the second tier of English football and got their 2017 off to a disastrous start with seven defeats in their first eight league games.

Bruce's side have gone on to win four of their last five, however, taking them up to 12th in the table.

The Midlands outfit still sit 14 points adrift of sixth-placed Sheffield Wednesday and despite there being just nine games of the campaign remaining, Bruce is adamant that they can still mount a late charge.

"We're never going to give it up," he told reporters this morning. "There's still a lot of points.

"It's just a shame that in the run we had we didn't even pick up average points because if we had have done, we would be sitting very nicely.

"If I'm going to be realistic then it looks a tall order, but we'll never give up.

"There's one or two other teams in real big form chasing - i.e. Fulham - and there's always one team who drops out and another who comes with a late surge so you never know."

Next up for Villa is a trip to struggling Wigan Athletic tomorrow afternoon.