Bristol City and Aston Villa played out a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Ashton Gate last Friday night in front of a bumper crowd of 24,224 writes Will Collins.

Steve Bruce’s Villa side came into the fixture on a poor run of form given the quality of players at their disposal.

Their side included popular former City players Tammy Abraham, Albert Adomah and Jonathan Kodjia.

But despite their obvious riches in the playing department, this was a poor Villa side that failed to impress bar a short 10-15 minute spell at the start of the second half.

As they have done on several occasions this season, City came out of the traps quickest. Andreas Weimann went close early on from a Josh Brownhill cross before the latter drilled home the opening goal of the game after 16 minutes.

Following a neat one-two between Weimann and Matty Taylor the ball fell to Brownhill who wrong-footed the Villa keeper from 25 yards.

City remained in control of the game for the rest of the first half but suffered a sucker-punch just before the half-time interval. Conor Hourihane’s cross was guided into the net by the head of Bjarnason, which must have given the away side great hope. It was an immensely frustrating time to concede as City had deserved the lead.

After Villa’s bright start to the second half, City came back into the game and looked very comfortable for the last half hour without ever really threatening. A draw was probably a fair result in the end.

City take on Rotherham United tonight while this Sunday, they host Sheffield Wednesday at Ashton Gate in the final game before the international break. The Owls have had a decent start to the season despite many pundits suggesting they may struggle.

City will be looking for a repeat of last season’s performance against Wednesday when we beat them 4-0 at the beginning of March.