That is why he has stressed the need for Villa to bounce back quickly from their dreadful performance in the 3-0 reversal at Newcastle 10 days ago when they entertain his old club Middlesbrough on Saturday.

The one-time England midfielder, this week voted the Football Writers’ Association (Midland branch) Player Of The Year, said: ‘‘We have to avoid the kind of run which has hit us in recent seasons.

‘‘We’ve been in decent positions but three years running have then had spells of 10 to 11 games where we couldn’t get any sort of victory and you can’t afford to do that.

‘‘It leaves you with too much to do and we’ve paid for those runs where we wondered where the next victory was going to come from.

‘‘Everyone gets beaten from time to time but the crucial thing is to hit back quickly with three points in the next game.

‘‘That’s the kind of thing Ipswich did last season and even if you win one, lose one, win one, lose one, you can still stay in touch. But you can’t afford the kind of runs we’ve had in the past.

‘‘We managed to bounce back after we lost at Everton by winning the next two home games with Charlton and Bolton and now we’ve got to hit back after the defeat at Newcastle before the international break.

‘‘I hope the lads are still hurting after that defeat because if you want to be successful and be a good team, you have to go to those places and get results.’’