One winner; one loser from Aston Villa’s EFL Cup defeat

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Aston Villa bowed out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening with a disappointing 1-0 defeat at League One Burton Albion.

Liam Boyce’s goal just after the interval was enough to see the Brewers through to round two, leaving a young Villa outfit to lick their wounds.

Villa were fortunate to scrape through the first round and needed a late goal to defeat Yeovil Town, but they weren’t quite so lucky this time around as Nigel Clough’s men held on for the victory.

Boss Steve Bruce must now pick his side up for the trip to Sheffield United on Saturday and this midweek defeat might have seen a few of the club’s fringe players forced further down the pecking order.

The Boot Room took a look at one winner and one loser from a miserable night for the Villains.

Winner – Sheffield United

Saturday’s opponents for Aston Villa will have watched on with intrigue as they enjoyed a night off having been knocked out of the competition at the first hurdle.

Not only will they have extra time to recover for this weekend’s game but they will go into it on the back of thrashing Bolton Wanderers last time out and that could have a big phycological bearing on the fixture.

Villa need to forget about this defeat sharpish and Bruce will be chomping at the bit to get his charges back on the training ground in preparation for a tough game with the Blades.

Loser – Steve Bruce

With Aston Villa now under new owners the boss will know that he is under pressure to deliver success this season and every defeat will increase such pressures.

Okay, so Bruce will point to the fact that he rested several of his top stars for the trip to Burton but losing games isn’t a habit he wants to get accustomed to.

The Villains haven’t won since the second weekend of the campaign and after three  league draws on the spin, he is now under real pressure to send Sheffield United packing on Saturday.