Steve Bruce knows Aston Villa have a battle on their hands to keep the playmaker Jack Grealish at the club beyond Thursday’s transfer deadline.

Grealish, an integral part of Villa’s run to the Championship play-off final last season, has been linked with a move to Tottenham this summer.

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Bruce opted to start him against Hull but would understand if Grealish is tempted by a top-four Premier League club. “I am fed up reading about it and I cannot wait until after Thursday,” he said. “Nobody wants him to leave but there is a human element to it too.

“The owners have made it pretty clear that they don’t want to sell him and that still stands. Now if they get to a magical figure, then we will see. What that magical figure is I do not know.

“He is an Aston Villa fan, his family are Aston Villa through and through, they are probably in the away end tonight singing with the fans. It is an emotional thing for him, of course.

“But he is young and ambitious and wants to play in the Champions League and we understand that.

“We are all trying our best to hang on to him but at the moment there is no decision to be made as they are not at the figure where the owners are even blinking.

“It has been a difficult few weeks to say the least, but the new owners have taken over the club in a week,” said Bruce, who is still looking to strengthen his side. You cannot buy a house in a week. That shows how real they are.

“It was a poor start, an awful goal to concede. But second half we were a bit brighter.

“It is nice to get off to a good start but there is still a lot of work to be done. That was pretty obvious.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Alan Hutton celebrates with the away fans after his solo effort sealed victory. Photograph: Richard Sellers/Getty Images

Villa had found themselves trailing when Evandro gave the home side an early lead, looping the ball into the net from 20 yards after the Villa goalkeeper Jed Steer could only punch a cross to the edge of the penalty area.

Villa were level seven minutes later, though, when Tommy Elphick lost his marker at a corner and scored with a close-range free header.

Conor Hourihane grazed the bar with a 25-yard free-kick after the break and, with the visitors getting on top, an error by David Marshall, the Hull goalkeeper, swung the game Villa’s way. Marshall miscued a goal-kick and Hourihane played in Ahmed Elmohamady down the right for the former Hull defender to fire into the bottom corner of the net.

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Elmohamady refused to celebrate against his old team but the 2,500 Villa fans had more to shout about five minutes later when Alan Hutton capitalised on further suspect defending from Hull to advance into the penalty area down the right and beat Marshall with an angled shot.

Hull’s manager, Nigel Adkins, admits his side need to improve defensively.

“The three goals were really poor,” he said. “We did start the game very well, on the front foot as we wanted.

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“It was a great goal from Evandro and thoroughly what we deserved. Unfortunately you can’t really prepare yourself for the couple of poor goals that we’ve given away in close succession to put Villa in a good position to go and win the game.

“The atmosphere in the stadium was good but obviously we’re all disappointed now with the result that has gone and happened.”