Steve Bruce: 'Aston Villa job was the toughest of my career' ahead of Newcastle's trip to Villa Park

It was the big job that turned sour, the challenge he failed and Steve Bruce has described his time at Aston Villa as the toughest he has endured as a manager.

There are plenty of bad memories for Bruce at Villa Park. Both his parents died in his first season in Birmingham, before a financial meltdown, following defeat to Fulham in the play off final, paralysed the club and left Bruce fearing it would go out of business.

Hounded out by supporters a few months after a takeover had pulled them back from the brink of administration, with Villa tumbling down the table and fans fed up with the style of football, Bruce’s final game in charge – a 3-3 draw with Preston – was soured even more when a cabbage was thrown at him from the stands.

“It summed up that day against Preston, cruising 2-0 up at half-time, James Chester got sent off and then 3-2 down with two minutes to we equalised.. we then had a penalty, the ball fell to Glenn Whelan… He had never scored a penalty in his life.

“I thought it (cabbage) was a ball to begin with, it was a big old thing. How he got it into the stadium I don’t know. Stephen Clemence miscontrolled it when it came in. My reaction was ‘what the fuck is that?’ It didn’t miss me by much, it fell at my feet. I thought it was a ball, the size of it. The fans can throw some things, but a cabbage?

“I went the next day, so I didn’t have time to get angry. It was one of the most unsavoury times of my career.

“I got criticised, yes, but for that 18 months only Man City scored more goals than us. They are a very difficult lot. Great club, great support with great history, but it was in a mess. It was arguably my most difficult job, even more difficult than this one.”

Bruce will return to Villa Park with his Newcastle team on Monday night and, having been told about the animosity that has developed between two of the great underachievers of English football, bitterness sparked when Villa fans gleefully mocked Newcastle’s relegation to the Championship in 2008, Bruce could not resist joining in.

“I knew they were bitter and twisted down there,” he laughed. “I didn’t get them promoted, we almost got there but lost the play off final.

“When I arrived it was a mess, they hadn’t won away from home for something like 20 months. They’d won four games or something, it had the stench of relegation.

“The players all had the pet lip because they had lost half their money [after relegation]. It was really really difficult, the morale was really low.  I said to [director of football] Steve Round, never mind getting promoted, we need to avoid another relegation first.

“When we lost the play-off final, we were told there was a £30m hole in the finances. It was the worst and probably the most difficult six weeks after the play-off game, it unravelled we didn’t know if we would be paid, we almost sold Jack Grealish to Spurs just to keep the club going.