Tyrone Mings helped pen a new chapter in the Aston Villa record books as they continued their relentless pursuit of a Championship play-off place.
Mings made his 13th start for Villa as they registered a 2-0 win at Bolton yesterday – a club-record equalling ninth successive league victory.
Second-half goals from Jack Grealish and Tammy Abraham saw Villa establish a six-point cushion in the race for the play-offs and also condemned Bolton to relegation.
Mings returned from a one-match ban following his red card at Rotherham earlier this month and went close to scoring before Abraham had added their second goal.
Having created a chance for Anwar El Ghazi which was saved by Ben Alnwick, Mings then saw his firm header blocked by the Bolton goalkeeper.
Abraham, who is on loan from Chelsea, became the first Villa player to score 25 league goals in a season since Andy Gray in 1976-77 before succumbing to a shoulder injury.
Villa, who host Millwall on Monday, won nine successive league games for the first time in 109 years.
Aaron Ramsdale turned in another accomplished display as AFC Wimbledon claimed another potentially-priceless point in their bid to beat the drop.
Ramsdale made two important saves as the Dons battled out a 1-1 draw with League One rivals Bristol Rovers at Kingsmeadow.
The hosts dominated the first half and deservedly led at the break thanks to Joe Pigott’s stunning strike after 22 minutes.
Ramsdale raced off his line to make a smart stop from Gavin Reilly after he had gone clean through before the goalkeeper also thwarted Ed Upson.
However, Ramsdale was powerless to prevent Ollie Clarke’s rasping 25-yarder earning Rovers a share of the spoils 12 minutes from time.
A third successive draw left the Dons a point adrift of safety ahead of Tuesday’s trip to leaders Luton Town.
Alex Dobre went close to levelling for Yeovil Town before they went down 2-0 at Crewe in League Two.
Trailing to Charlie Kirk’s fourth-minute opener, the Glovers were denied an equaliser when Dobre’s right-footed shot was saved by Crewe goalkeeper Will Jaaskelainen.
Yeovil, who had Adel Gafaiti sent off after 58 minutes, conceded a second to Tommy Lowery and are two points adrift with three games remaining.
Tyler Cordner made his 32nd appearance in Havant & Waterlooville’s eventful 3-3 draw with National League rivals Ebbsfleet at Westleigh Park.
The Hawks raced into a 3-0 lead at the break thanks to Alfie Rutherford’s double and a Dan McNamara goal.
But Ebbsfleet hit back to score three times in the space of 11 second-half minutes through Danny Kedwell, Michael Cheek and Sam Magri.
Shaun Hobson made his seventh appearance for Eastleigh in their 2-0 defeat by Dagenham & Redbridge at Victoria Road.
The defender was replaced by Ben Williamson in the 54th minute, the substitution coming just two minutes after Chike Kandi had netted Daggers’ second goal.
Former Cherries youngster Ollie Harfield opened the scoring for the hosts on the stroke of half-time as they dented Eastleigh’s play-off hopes.
Frank Vincent made his second start for champions Torquay United in their 2-1 defeat at Chippenham Town in National South.
Dean Evans opened the scoring for Chippenham in the 24th minute and Nick McCootie grabbed the winner 20 minutes from time after Olaf Koszela had bagged his first goal for the Gulls.
Marc Pugh (Hull City) and Connor Mahoney (Birmingham City) were both ruled out of their respective loan clubs’ games due to injury.
