Aston Villa 1-0 Millwall: Jonathan Kodjia earns record-breaking 10th straight win
- Published
Jonathan Kodjia's winner against Millwall was his eighth Championship goal of the season
Dominant Aston Villa beat struggling Millwall to secure a Championship play-off spot with a record-breaking 10th successive win.
Jonathan Kodjia stabbed home Anwar El Ghazi's cross from close range to break a club record that has stood since 1910.
Kodjia, El Ghazi, Jack Grealish and substitute Andre Green all missed chances to make the margin of victory more comfortable.
Fifth-placed Villa will now finish at least sixth as sixth-placed Derby County and eighth-placed Bristol City meet next Saturday - and both cannot overhaul Dean Smith's men from their remaining games.
It is a remarkable turnaround for Villa, whose 2-1 defeat at The Den in October's corresponding fixture - their sole game under the caretaker stewardship of Kevin MacDonald following Steve Bruce's sacking - left them languishing 15th in the Championship.
They continued to hover around mid-table for much of the early part of Smith's reign but their stunning recent form has secured a play-off spot in a season most Villa fans were preparing to write off.
That successful sequence has owed much to the creativity of Grealish - since his return from injury - and the goals of Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham, but it was the supporting cast that shone against Millwall.
With Abraham sidelined by a shoulder issue, Ivory Coast forward Kodjia made the most of a rare start, his first in two months, with a poacher's finish set up by the excellent El Ghazi to ensure this Villa side's place in club folklore.
They should have won more comfortably but Millwall keeper David Martin produced a string of second-half saves, two from El Ghazi and one each from Grealish and Green, while Kodjia prodded wide after a fine solo run.
The visitors - three points above 22nd-placed Rotherham in the fight to avoid the final Championship relegation spot - could have snatched a point but Jake Cooper headed wide when Villa keeper Jed Steer failed to meet a free-kick.
Aston Villa head coach Dean Smith:
"If you had asked me 11 games ago would we go and win the next 10, I would have thought you were a little bit crackers.
"The turning point was half-time at Stoke when I got into the players and we have been excellent since then.
"I don't think until I look back on it I will realise what we have actually done because my focus is still on getting promoted.
"This is a historic, great football club and to be the first manager to have achieved it is something special, but we want to continue it."
Millwall manager Neil Harris:
"First and foremost we lost the game so I am a little bit dejected at this stage of the season.
"We should have had our noses in front and then it could have been a different game.
"The goal is poor by us and I will make no bones about that. We have a throw-in and lose the first contact, the second ball, miss a tackle and then we open up against Villa. who pick the right end product.
"The goal was avoidable, so there is frustration."