A welcome piece of history for Aston Villa came with the near-certainty their season will be extended into the Championship play-offs.
In defeating Millwall thanks to Jonathan Kodjia's goal, Villa established a new club record of 10 consecutive league victories and eclipsed their previous best of nine set way back in 1910.
Every season, the Championship sees a club make a perfectly-timed dart from the pack into the top six.
Aston Villa secured their tenth consecutive league win a row, which is a new club record
Jonathan Kodjia's first half goal proved to be the difference against Millwall at Villa Park
The win puts Dean Smith's side firmly in the driving seat for a Championship playoff spot
This time around, Dean Smith's Villa have recovered from a torrid start to 2019 and, thanks to their superb winning run, are now almost assured of their play-off place.
It could give Villa a chance to atone for their Wembley defeat to Fulham in last season's Premier League promotion final and, on current form, nobody will fancy facing them.
Villa were a long way from clinical here, but with Millwall notoriously difficult to beat and scrapping for second-tier survival, victory should be accepted by any means.
Aston Villa (4-1-4-1): Steer; Elmohamady, Jedinak, Mings, Taylor; Whelan (Hourihane 60); Adomah (Green 60), McGinn, Grealish (c), El Ghazi; Kodjia (Davis 76)
Substitutes not used: Sarkic (GK); Elphick, Bjarnason, Lansbury
Manager: Dean Smith
Scorer: Kodjia 30
Booked: Taylor, Davis
Millwall (4-4-1-1): Martin; Romeo (Elliott 89), Pearce (c), Cooper, Meredith (O’Brien 64); Marshall, Leonard, Tunnicliffe (Morison 79), Ferguson; Wallace; Gregory
Substitutes not used: Amos (GK); McLaughlin, Williams, Skalak
Manager: Neil Harris
Booked: Cooper, O'Brien
Referee: Tim Robinson (West Sussex)
Attendance: 39,893
David Martin was also outstanding in the Millwall goal and, in the end, the only reason Villa didn't enjoy a more comfortable afternoon.
The London club remain deep in relegation trouble though their saving grace is a home game in hand, albeit one against play-off chasers Bristol City.
There was an early clue to the kind of gameplan Millwall wanted to adopt when Martin was given a
