Conor Hourihane: Plenty more to come from improving Aston Villa

Saturday’s 3-1 home win over Barnsley was the fourth consecutive Championship victory for Steve Bruce’s team and leaves them just three points behind second-placed Derby.

Hourihane remains aware Villa cannot afford to take their foot off the gas but reckons they are yet to hit top gear.

“I still think there is room for improvement and we’ll always look to do that,” he said. “We are just going about our business quietly and in the right manner.

“No-one is getting ahead of themselves because there is still a long way to go.

“Day by day, week by week, we will try to tick these games off and do things in the best way possible.”

Hourihane netted against his former club as Villa struck three times inside the opening 19 minutes.

Scott Hogan continued his resurgence with a quickfire brace to put the hosts two up after just seven minutes, with Hourihane then scoring after Dimitri Cavare had briefly reduced the deficit.

The Republic of Ireland international believes Villa have answered those who critics wrote them off when they sat ten points adrift of the top two only a month ago.

“One of the best things in life is proving people wrong,” he said. “Everyone gets criticised, everyone in the team has been criticised at some point in their careers and are going about their business in the right way.

“Ultimately, if you keep doing that, you will come out on top.

“It’s a funny league. Four or five games ago people were saying we had dropped out and it was a crisis.

“All of a sudden we have won four in a row and everyone is saying ‘bloody hell, look at these, they are on their way’.

“You just have to take the rough with the smooth, day-in, day-out. Hopefully we will get where we want to be at the end of the season.”