Steve Bruce has described Neil Warnock as "a canny old fox" for the Cardiff City manager's use of tactics in the midweek meeting with Aston Villa.

The Villans came out on top 1-0 at Villa Park to keep their slim automatic promotion hopes alive, which they further strengthened with a win by the same scoreline against Leeds United on Friday night.

Villa were frustrated for large parts of the Cardiff match and had to ride their luck at times, but Bruce believes that opposite number Warnock's instructions had a large part to play in the scrappy affair.

"Slow the game down? Well they're masters at it! The centre-half comes over and takes the throw-ins every time they're in their half so that usually takes about thirty seconds," he told reporters. "Most clubs use the big throw up the line. I thought they were canny in the way they did it just after half time, I thought that was a ploy.

"Just after we were getting a head of steam up they've gone down with a little injury then gone down with another one. We've all used that tactic so I'm not going to criticise in that respect. I think it's the way they play, it's the way they set themselves up.

"They play for set-pieces they play up and against you. That's how difficult it is to get the game. In the second half I felt we did everything a bit quicker which helps us but every restart there was a bit of time-going but he's used that tactic for years. He's a canny old fox isn't he?"

Cardiff are a point better off than Villa in third place with two games in hand to play.