Burton 0 Aston Villa 4 - Report and pictures

Three wins on the spin, back-to-back away league victories for the first time since 2014, the biggest win under Steve Bruce and, most importantly of all, the kind of performance which will make the rest of the Championship sit up and take note.

Burton might be much the smaller club in stature but no-one had humbled the Brewers on their own patch in the Championship quite like this.

In the space of 19 first-half minutes, Villa simply blew away their hosts with a powerful attacking display which occasionally veered in the brilliant..

Keinan Davis headed the first, before Albert Adomah finished one of the finest Villa team goals in many a year for his fourth in three games, to put Bruce’s men two to the good.

Robert Snodgrass then fired home the third and his first for the club just past the half-hour mark.

After that, it always seemed a case of how many more Villa would score. In the end they managed one, when Scott Hogan set up fellow substitute Josh Onomah to cap a memorable night.

In the short-term, the victory moved Bruce’s team up to eighth in the table, now just two points outside the top six, with a game against bottom of the table Bolton to come on Saturday.

Yet it is the long-term promise generated by the performance which will now have supporters salivating. Villa, after a slow start to the season, are starting to look the team everyone expected them to be.

Bruce named an unchanged team for the third league game running as Villa looked to continue their climb up the table.

Burton boss Nigel Clough also named an unchanged XI and it was his team which made the stronger start before Villa hit their stride.

John Brayford fired a bouncing effort wide of goal after being fed by the lively Sean Scannell, who also fired in a dangerous cross which Villa keeper Sam Johnstone did well to gather.

Villa barely had possession in Burton’s half during the opening ten minutes but when they finally did go on the front foot, they did so with devastating efficiency.

Bywater had already twice denied Kodjia before Davis broke the deadlock.

First the Burton keeper got down low to his right to keep out the Villa striker’s low shot with the aid of the post. He was then alert to push Kodjia’s header, from an Elmohamdy cross, round the post.

But on 13 minutes Villa had the lead as Davis netted his second of the season. Kodjia played a major role in the build-up, picking up the ball on the left wing and moving infield.

The Ivory Coast international shaped to shoot more than once but seeing the angle blocked instead opted to play in Elmohamady, whose first-time cross was crashed past Bywater by Davis six yards out.

It was a finely worked goal, yet nothing compared to the move Villa crafted three minutes later to double their lead.

Breaking from the back with pace and purpose, several midfielders exchanged passes before Snodgrass played in Adomah on the left-hand side of the box. The winger shaped to fire a shot toward the opposite corner but, perhaps having seen Bywater make an initial move that way, instead flicked his finish in the opposite direction and inside the near post.

Stunned Burton looked for a response and Lucas Akins headed straight at Johnstone from Jamie Allen’s cross.

But Villa were looking dangerous with every attack and just past the half-hour mark piled on further misery for the hosts when Snodgrass made it three.

Elmohamady led the charge as Villa broke swiftly down the right and though Burton initially looked to have cleared the danger, the ball broke to Snodgrass on the edge of the box.

The Scot’s first-time shot, though not fiercely struck, went through the legs of at least two defenders and past an unsighted Bywater.

It was both the on-loan West Ham winger’s first goal for Villa and first since he netted against Albion for Hull at The Hawthorns on January 2.

Snodgrass had the ball in the net again early in the second half but the effort was quickly chalked off by an offside flag.

Scannell, Marvin Sordell and Luke Murphy meanwhile all sent shots from distance off target as the hosts searched for any kind of foothold in the game.

It still took until almost halfway through the period for Johnstone to be tested for the first time in the match, Villa’s keeper diving to his left to keep out substitute Hope Akpan’s fiercely struck half-volley.

Any hopes the hosts might have had of a remarkable comeback were extinguished 19 minutes from time when Hogan and Onomah, both only on the pitch for a handful of minutes, combined for Villa’s fourth.

Burton (3-5-2): Bywater, Buxton, Turner (Dyer 48), McFadzean, Brayford (Akpan 33), Allen, Murphy, Akins, Warnock, Scannell, Sordell (Mason 66) Subs not used: Flanagan, Naylor, Varney, Ripley (gk).

Villa (4-4-2): Johnstone, Elmohamady, Chester, Terry ©, Taylor, Snodgrass, Whelan, Hourihane, Adomah (Bjarnson 79)), Kodjia (Onomah 69), Davis (Hogan 65) Subs not used: Samba, Hutton, O’Hare, Steer (gk)