Steve Bruce has insisted that he is "not worried" about losing his Aston Villa job and has vowed to win over the "vile" social media trolls calling for his head.
The 56-year-old has made a slow start to his first full campaign in charge of the Villans, seeing his side pick up just one point from the first nine on offer.
Villa head into Saturday afternoon's home match against Norwich City sitting at the foot of the Championship table, but Bruce - with 40 years' experience in the game under his belt - is refusing to let the online minority get their way by calling it quits early on.
"I am not worried one jot at this stage because we have only just started," he told reporters. "The frustration for me is that media and social media now is vile. Thankfully I don't read it. But I hear snippets. It borders on ridiculous but I suppose that is the society we live in. Everyone has their say, don't they?
"No-one hurts in defeat the way I do. I take it badly, especially if we don't put our boots on. When things are not going so well, you have to dig deep. I have to go on the training ground and motivate the coaches and the players, who are not in a great place at the minute.
"I have to rally them round and get started again. I didn't think [the reaction] would be as fierce and ridiculous as it is after a week. That's what football is now. I'm determined, given time, that I'll turn it around. Hopefully we will get a victory and it turns round very quickly.
"There is nothing you can do apart from win on Saturday to shut the nonsense up. There has been a lot of nonsense but you remember them. You think well, I will remember what they said a few weeks ago and hopefully shove it down their throats."
Bruce took over from Roberto Di Matteo as Villa boss last October, guiding the West Midlands outfit from 19th to 13th in the remaining seven months of the 2016-17 season.
Daniel Lewis
