Bruce salutes bravery of captain fantastic Davies

Hull City 0 Aston Villa 0

Davies signed for the Tigers for €2.65m in the summer and has proved an instant success courtesy ofa handful of powerful performances at the back.

He was at his best in the goalless Premier League draw against Aston Villa, fronting up in a physical contest with Czech striker Libor Kozak and coming out on top to be named man of the match.

The only downside on his day was an aerial clash with Kozak that left both men nursing head injuries. Davies, for once, came off second best and posted a picture on Twitter showing a badly swollen eye and cut that requires several stitches.

Bruce was delighted with the player’s quality and bravery in a match that otherwise had minimal talking points.

“Sometimes a centre-back doesn’t get the recognition he deserves, but he really was a proper captain in this match. He was terrific,” said Bruce, a long-serving member of the defenders’ union from his playing days.

“He has a horrible, horrible cut now, a really nasty one. It’s a cut over the eye but a bad one which is down to the bone. ”

Villa boss Paul Lambert might have been hoping for more after last weekend’s 3-2 win over Manchester City but he opted to assess the wider haul of 10 points from a tough early run.

“Any point in this league you grasp, especially away from home. We have seven from the last nine and that’s a big return considering we’ve had two away games in that period,” he said.

HULL (4-4-2):A McGregor; L Rosenior, C Davies, A Faye, M Figueroa; A Elmohamady (D Meyler 85), T Huddlestone, J Livermore, S Quinn (G Boyd 69); S Aluko (Sagbo 69), D Graham.

ASTON VILLA (4-4-2): B Guzan; L Bacuna, R Vlaar, C Clark, A Luna; K El Ahmadi, A Westwood (A Tonev 74), F Delph, A Weimann; L Kozak, G Agbonlahor (J Bowery 75).

Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear).