Many could argue that it was an undeserved victory as the Wanderers where at the mercy of their Midlands opponents for a large proportion of the ninety minutes but nevertheless Speed kept his cool to fire home the spot kick fifteen minutes from the end.

Bolton also had their goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen to thank for pulling off a string of fine saves with the most notable coming from Villa's young substitute Craig Gardner and centre half Gary Cahill.

Bulgarian midfielder Stilian Petrov forced the first save of the game after just three minutes when Jaaskelainen comfortably gathered a long range free kick by the former Celtic favourite.

It was fair to say that the hosts put Bolton under enormous spells of pressure in the first half an hour but credit must go to the visiting defence for putting in a sturdy performance which was almost as vital as the penalty by Speed which eventually won the Wanderers the game.

Firstly the Bolton defence cleared their lines to deny Villa's Milan Baros the opportunity of opening the scoring from close range and then speedy winger Gabriel Agbonlahor fired wide after managing to break away from his marker Henrik Pedersen.

Wanderers where not able to show the same fluency as was the case in last weekend's win over West Ham and their evening suffered a huge blow when Stelios Giannakopoulos withdrew from the action midway through the opening half.

It went from bad to worse for Sam Allardyce's men as Kevin Davies picked up his fifth booking of the season and will now be absent for next week's local derby away at Manchester City.

The visitors missed the skill and charisma of their top goalscorer El-Hadji Diouf throughout the game as neither Davies, Anelka or Stelios could test Villa goalkeeper Kiraly sufficiently.

In fact, the best Bolton chances of the opening half fell to midfielders Speed and Campo and neither could turn their free kick into a goal but pleasing enough was the fact that the visitors stood firm when put under pressure by Villa.

Jaaskelainen came to Bolton's rescue in the opening twenty minutes of the second half when he pulled of two top drawer saves to deny Gardner and Cahill. England U21 international Cahill fired in a superb shot from distance which the Finnish star was able to tip over to safety.

Unfortunately for Bolton they suffered their second injury jinx of the night as the unflappable Abdoulaye Meite was withdrawn in the 68th minute after failing to recover from a meaty challenge by Craig Gardner.

Ricardo Gardner was surprisingly introduced in place of substitute Idal Tal for his second game of the season and the Jamaican immediately took up a place on the left of midfield.

Unfortunately the long serving Reggae Boyz ace could do little to drive Bolton forward but their slice of good fortune did eventually come courtesy of some eagle eyed refereeing by Mark Clattenburg.

Petrov clumsily tripped Anelka in the area and veteran Gary Speed made no mistake from the spot in what was his 100th game in the colours of Bolton Wanderers.

Villa tried to claim a number of penalty appeals but referee Clattenburg stood firm and Bolton held on for their first victory on the road in nearly two months.

Next up for the Trotters is a trip to local rivals Manchester City. The City of Manchester Stadium has proved to be a happy hunting ground for the Wanderers as they have won two out of the three meetings played there.

Bolton Wanderers: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Abdoulaye Faye, Abdoulaye Meite (Tal Ben-Haim), Henrik Pedersen, Kevin Nolan, Ivan Campo, Gary Speed, Kevin Davies, Nicolas Anelka, Stelios Giannakopoulos (Idan Tal) (Ricardo Gardner)

Subs Not Used: Ricardo Vaz-Te, Ali Al-Habsi (GK)

Aston Villa: Gabor Kiraly, Olaf Mellberg, Liam Ridgewell, Gary Cahill, Gareth Barry, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Gavin McCann (Craig Gardner), Stilian Petrov, Steven Davis, Milan Baros (Juan Pablo Angel), Chris Sutton

Subs Not Used: Wilfred Bouma, Aaron Hughes, Robert Olejnik (GK)

Referee:

Mark Clattenburg

Attendance:

27,450

Booked:

Abdoulaye Faye (Bolton)

Kevin Davies(Bolton)

Henrik Pedersen (Bolton)

Ricardo Gardner (Bolton)

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