Well then, another afternoon of Championship action draws to a close...

Plenty of drama and excitement once again and a few twists and turns at both ends of the table.

We've got more games on the way for you in the next couple of days.

On Sunday, Bristol City host Millwall at 13:30 GMT.

The action concludes on Monday, when West Brom take on Brentford at The Hawthorns (20:00).

There will of course be live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app from both games, so you won't miss a thing.

Catch you then...

Job well and truly done then for Villa tonight on Teesside.

Read how they dismantled Boro 3-0 in our match report that's live on the link below....

Man of the match - Aston Villa midfielder Conor Hourihane on Sky Sports:

"Hopefully we've arrived in this promotion race with a statement in that performance.

"We really wanted to come here and show what we're about and we've done that.

"It's a joy to play for the manager, he's been first class since he came in and hopefully we can keep this run going at the minute."

Scorer Tammy Abraham:

"It was a difficult game for me and I knew it would be tough against this defence, but I kept getting in the right areas in the hope of getting a goal.

"Confidence is high at the moment, but the boys keep creating the chances for me and I have just got to keep getting on the end of them.

"Coming here, I always believed where we can be as a team and hopefully we can build on this."

Some more reaction on the way from two of Villa's match-winners....

So Villa up to eighth with their fourth win in the past five matches. They're also unbeaten in their past six.

Image source, Rex Features

James Chester, Tammy Abraham and Glenn Whelan with the goals in that commanding Villa win.

One to forget if you're of a Boro persuasion.

Four minutes to be added on here at the end of this one.

It certainly will set them up this win and as we mentioned earlier, Villa will be just three points off the play-off places as a result.

Boro will now be four points behind the top two after being second earlier in the week.

Garry Thompson
Ex-Aston Villa striker on BBC WM 95.6

When you see who we were gonna play [this week] you'd have said seven points is doing really well.

This should set Villa up nicely for Christmas.

A very telling shake of the head by Tony Pulis on the touchline there as the camera panned to him.

What has gone wrong with Boro's defence tonight?

In this game, they've conceded almost a third of all the goals they'd let in in the 19 games before it.

Double change for Villa sees John McGinn make way for Glenn Whelan and Scott Hogan comes on for Tammy Abraham.

Abraham looking a bit weary there from a knock in a challenge a bit earlier.

Boro so close to finding a way back into this one!

Jordan Hugill does everything well as he peels back in the box to pick up George Friend's cut-back.

Lovely first touch to control it and then a left-foot hammered half-volley that crashes on to the crossbar and back out.

Looks like Orjan Nyland may have also got a fingertip on it as well to keep it out.

Gary O'Brien: You can see how far we have progressed under Dean Smith. We did not lose on Wednesday despite the big win on Sunday. Last season we would have. Now two goals away against a famously mean defence. Another sign of improvement: the match stats show that AVFC is bossing the match away from home!

And managing they are Villa. Boro have looked extremely flat in this one so far.

A stat has just flashed up showing how little some of their attacking players have touched the ball and that really sums up their lack of creativity tonight.

Garry Thompson
Ex-Aston Villa striker on BBC WM 95.6

They've just got to manage it now, give very little away and see it out.

Jack Grealish gets scythed down a touch by Jonny Howson in the middle of the park as the Villa man tries to twist and turn away.

Jonathan Kodjia meanwhile is on to replace Yannick Bolasie for Villa, who had a cracker of a game.

George Friend in the book for a late challenge on Tammy Abraham there as the Villa striker looked odds-on to get clear of his man.

After last Sunday's derby defeat against Aston Villa, Birmingham bounced back with back-to-back wins against Millwall on Wednesday night and Preston today.

Blues manager Garry Monk told BBC WM 95.6 that he couldn't have asked for a better response:

"You can't ask for more in terms of a response in a space of six or seven days, after last Sunday's defeat against Villa.

"From the minute the final whistle went on Sunday, the response from the players, staff and fans has been tremendous - two clean sheets and six points.

"Today we were in control of the first-half, but the tempo couldn't quite get going so we spoke about that at half-time. But the way we went about things in the second-half was what we needed to do.

"We're going to have ups and downs, but you can see the attitude and character about us, we've shown we can go on unbeaten runs and respond to setbacks and that's important."

So looking good for one team from the Second City in this game, not been a bad afternoon either for one of their neighbours....