Aston Villa's bid for Premier League promotion remains on course as they have moved up to fifth in the Championship table with a 2-0 victory over Preston North End.
The visitors should have been a goal to the good inside the first 10 minutes on Wednesday night when Albert Adomah burst into the box before squaring the ball for Keinan Davis, whose attempt from the centre of the goal was pushed away by Chris Maxwell.
After a spell of pressure at Deepdale, Steve Bruce's side took the lead thanks to James Chester, who delivered from the set piece by latching on to the end of a corner kick and nodding the ball past the keeper.
A matter of minutes later, Preston had a penalty claim denied, despite the fact that Chester stuck a leg out, resulting in Sean Maguire hitting the deck.
Villa continued to press the home side, who needed Maxwell's help again when Davis struck with a decent header in the area, but the attempt was ruled offside.
Just after the half-hour mark, Robert Snodgrass doubled the visitors' lead thanks to some poor defending from Preston, who ended up giving the ball away.
The winger, who joined the Midlands outfit from West Ham United in the summer, received the ball from Josh Onomah before directing it into the bottom corner with a low and clean finish.
John Terry tried to get on the scoresheet by connecting with Snodgrass's free kick, but the ball ended up drifting over the top of the crossbar.
It took 65 minutes for Preston to muster their first shot on target, and it came from Paul Gallagher, who tried to curl the ball into the back of the net from 30 yards out, but it was saved.
Villa could have won by a bigger margin had Adomah made the most of his opportunity, but the midfielder ended up lifting the ball over the top of the bar before being played in by Conor Hourihane.
In the end, Bruce's men got the points that they needed to put themselves five points within the automatic qualifying spots.
Danielle Joynson
