By Graham Hill
NO-ONE can accuse Jack Grealish of taking it one game at a time – he is already dreaming of Wembley.
Grealish has now captained Villa to seven successive Championship wins – and that has put them within sight of sealing their place in the play-offs.
But the Villa skipper does not want to stop there. He is already dreaming of making up for last year – and winning the play-off final.
Grealish suffered heartache last May when Steve Bruce’s Villa got to Wembley.
And despite Grealish producing some of Villa’s best moments, it was Fulham who won promotion.
Ironically, Fulham have already been relegated from the Premier Legaue, while Villa can still go up.
Grealish says Villa have put together a run which proves how good a side they are.
And if they win on Saturday against play-off rivals Bristol City, it will be the first time they have strung eight wins in a row together since 1975.
And Grealish sees no harm in reminding the rest of the division how well they are playing after another comeback saw them beat Rotherham despite being reduced to 10 men in the first half when Tyrone Mings was sent off.
Grealish told Villa’s official TV channel: “I love the captaincy, I just want to keep winning and keep captaining the club hopefully, come the end of the season, I’ll be at Wembley with a promotion medal around my neck.
“Saturday’s a massive game against Bristol City. That’s why it was so important to get the win on Wednesday.
“They’re doing well at the moment as well, but it’s at Villa Park. Everyone knows how good we are there, but we are just good at the moment – never mind at home. It gives it that extra boost though”.
Squad unity was being questioned at times in mid-season – but Grealish says the team are showing how together they are at the moment as they keep the momentum going.
He added: “You could see the togetherness in the pictures at the end, with Tyrone coming on after being sent off.
“The squad is so tight knit, we’re loving it, we are going into training with a smile on our faces, and we’re playing with confidence.
“It was a tough task at half-time in the circumstances, but the manager switched it up a bit we went 4-3-2, Jonathan Kodjia came on and I thought he was brilliant, so a lot of credit to him.
“The same for Mile Jedinak as well, he hadn’t played for a while, but that’s what the team is about at the moment, there is so much togetherness in there that when people come out there are people ready to step in.”
Grealish admitted the clash with Rotherham got physical and scrappy at times.
He said: “We knew it was going to be that type of game, we’d played them before this season and we knew what they were about, they didn’t water the pitch because they wanted to stop us playing, but we showed what we can do in the end.”
Villa Roar 