Snodgrass helps loan club Villa to important victory

Robert Snodgrass

 

Robert Snodgrass registered his 13th Championship assist of the season as Aston Villa kept their automatic promotion hopes alive with a 3-0 win over Reading on Tuesday.

The West Ham United loanee provided the cross for Conor Hourihane to head home the Villans’ second goal after Iceland midfielder Birkir Bjarnason had curled Steve Bruce’s side into the lead. Scott Hogan completed the scoring after dispossessing Royals’ goalkeeper Vito Mannone.

Villa’s victory kept up the pressure on second-place Cardiff City, who they host next Tuesday evening. Before that, Snodgrass will face his former club Norwich City at Carrow Road on Saturday lunchtime.

Elsewhere, Reece Burke played the full 90 minutes but was unable to prevent Bolton Wanderers falling to a 1-0 defeat by Birmingham City at the Macron Stadium.

Bolton remain 20th in the Championship table, five points clear of the relegation zone with six matches remaining, the first of which is at fifth-place Derby County on Saturday.

On Easter Monday, the wet weather put paid to Moses Makasi and Plymouth Argyle’s EFL League One fixture at Scunthorpe United, while Martin Samuelsen was an unused substitute in Burton Albion’s 1-1 Championship draw with Middlesbrough.

Finally, Reece Oxford missed Borussia Monchengladbach’s goalless German Bundesliga draw at Mainz through injury.