Unbeaten in four and with three successive victories, Aston Villa’s season had again changed in recent weeks and confidence was high going into today’s clash with Middlesbrough at Villa Park.
Having lifted ourselves to within two points of the Play-Offs, four wins on the spin would certainly bolster promotion hopes after our recent wobbles but Middlesbrough again have aspirations of their own under Tony Pulis, so we knew what to expect but Boro failed to deliver.
Anwar El Ghazi gave us the lead just ahead of the half hour mark, and John McGinn doubled the lead just before the break. Albert Adomah finished them off in the 88th minute as we took a 3-0 victory and it was routine and comfortable with a dominant showing.
Our fourth win on the spin puts us temporarily back into sixth place in the table.
Speaking to the BBC following the fulltime whistle, head coach Dean Smith said of the tie.
“It was a really good, positive performance against a good team with good players. They were very difficult to break down in the first 15 minutes and were a threat on the counter, but we finally got our rewards. We kept pushing and my only gripe is that we didn’t score more because I thought we were really good today. Climbing into the top six puts a spring in the step but we know there are teams with games in hand over us. We have just got to keep doing what we’re doing. It’s nice to go into the international break with four wins on the spin.”
Can’t have everything can you though.
