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 top 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 for a string of impressive saves by Bolton keeper Gavin Bazunu.

Former Bolton manager Keith Hill, working as a pundit for BBC Radio Manchester, spent no time criticising the performance of Steven Schumacher’s men, and instead described their opposition as “special”, and said they “worked like soldiers”.

“Their creative players are artists and so gifted, and I’d go as far as saying that they work harder than almost any other Championship squad,” Hill told BBC Radio Manchester.

“Middlesbrough were exceptional tonight, and if that is the bar in this league then they will finish in the top two.

“I think the Bolton staff, players and fans know they’ve been beaten by the best team in the Championship.”