Villa goal fest

For Fry, 59. Found it hard to adapt, all at sea for the second For Tavernier, 62. A pale shadow of his former self, barely had a touch

For Besic, 62. Struggled to get involved, one chance spurned Not used: Konstantopoulos, Ayala, McNair, Saville, Wing

Aston Villa: Nyland, Elmohamady, Tuanzebe, Chester, Taylor El Ghazi, McGinn (Whelan), Hourihane, Bolasie (Kodjia), Grealish, Abraham (Hogan). Not used: Jedinak, Bunn, O’Hare, Revan. Bookings: None Goals: Chester 20, Abraham 64, Whelan 83 TAMMY Abraham made it seven goals in his last four games to help Aston Villa bring an end to Middlesbrough’s eight-match unbeaten run by winning 3-0 at the Riverside Stadium.

Villa boss Dean Smith has won five of his first eight games in charge, including a five-match unbeaten run, to put his new team within three points of the Championship’s play-off zone.

Middlesbrough, who now trail second-placed Leeds by four points, could not find a way back after James Chester had put Aston Villa ahead in the 20th minute.

Abraham, on loan from Chelsea, hit his 11th goal of a productive season to seal the points in the North East just after the hour, before substitute Glenn Whelan added the third seven minutes from the end.

After the victories for Leeds and Norwich earlier in the day, Middlesbrough and Aston Villa both had victory in mind to close the gap on the top two.

Middlesbrough were wary of the attacking threat of the visitors following their midweek 5-5 draw with Nottingham Forest.

And after Jordan Hugill had an early run at the visiting defence blocked, when he got the ball stuck under his feet, that paved the way for some pressure in the Middles- brough half. The danger signs had been there and how Villa did not go ahead in the 11th minute was only down to the excellence of Darren Randolph, whose afternoon soon took a turn for the worse.

The Middlesbrough goalkeeper somehow got down to his left on his line to palm away a low Abraham