'Best team in the Championship' – Boro lay down marker

Middlesbrough thrash Bolton 5-1 to go top of the Championship and confirm their place among the promotion favourites. Will Lankshear (left) took his tally this season to 11 goals in 12 Championship games If there is ever a way to make promotion rivals sit up and take notice, then Middlesbrough found the formula in thrashing Bolton Wanderers 5-1 to go top of the Championship. Taking three points on a Friday night before anyone else has played is always the perfect way to set up the weekend. But it was the manner of Boro's display which really laid down the marker to those eyeing a place in the Premier League next season.

Championship top scorer Will Lankshear scored twice more – taking his tally to 11 goals in 12 league games this season – to underline his growing reputation as the division's leading marksman. Yet it was the underlying statistics that made this a hugely impressive team display. Boro's play was slick and incisive as they registered 31 shots at goal, 19 of which came in the first half alone. Of those 31, 12 were on target, with the 4.16 expected goals (xG) racked up by Kim Hellberg's side underlining the number and quality of chances they created. They scored five, and it could have been more had it not been