*Rudy Gestede’s brace helped Aston Villa comfortably beat Rotherham to claim their first win in over six months.*

Villa took the lead midway through the first half when the former Blackburn striker headed in Aly Cissokho’s cross.

Gestede made it 2-0 just before the break, chipping Lee Camp after being set up by Ross McCormack.

Jack Grealish added a third late on by rounding Camp and tapping in to seal Villa’s first win since beating Norwich in the Premier League on 6 February.

Having started the season with two defeats, against Sheffield Wednesday in the league and Luton in the EFL Cup, Villa finally claimed a competitive victory after 15 failed attempts.

The hosts went close to opening the scoring early on when Cissokho forced a save from Camp with a powerful strike before Stephen Kelly headed over from a corner at the other end.

Gestede’s opening goal rounded off a stylish move as Aaron Tshibola stole the ball in midfield before laying it off to Grealish, who fed Cissokho and the defender’s pinpoint cross then teed up the Benin international to head home.

The second was of similar quality as Jordan Ayew broke through the middle before feeding the ball to McCormack on the edge of the box who, with one touch, set up Gestede to lift the ball over Camp.

Grealish completed the scoring by rounding off his solo run with a neat finish from a tight angle.

*Aston Villa manager Roberto Di Matteo:*

“I am not relieved, I am pleased because I could see some positive signs despite the fact we lost the first game. I could see we are improving and we will keep improving. Results like this will help.

“Many of our players haven’t had that feeling for a long time, so to have that feeling is very important for the players and the fans.

“We wanted to win our first home game and make Villa Park a difficult place for teams to come. It was important to have a team performance overall and it resulted in a good win.

“You can do everything right on the training pitch but the best recipe for confidence is the result at the end of the week. One result will give us a lot of confidence, so this is the importance of this win.”