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Aston Villa 2 Bolton Wanderers 0
By Matt Lawton January 1 2003
Bolton Wanderers travelled down the M6 to Birmingham full of confidence after a recent good run but they fell to a disappointing 2-0 defeat in a vital Premiership game at Villa Park.

Villa took the lead after only eight minutes when Dion Dublin side-footed and Lee Hendrie pass past Jussi Jaaskelainen. It was quite a surprise lead as Villa hadn’t created any opportunities and if anything Bolton were the better side.

Villa nearly scored another when a corner was whipped in toward Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel who was denied by a fantastic reaction save from Jussi Jaaskelainen with all the goalmouth action now being centred around the Wanderers goal.

Bolton came back into the game when Kevin Nolan and Ricardo Gardner fired good chances over the crossbar. Nolan then had another chance but fired it at straight at the goalkeeper from distance.

Jaaskelainen then denied former Hibernian defender Ulises De La Cruz who shot at goal following good build up play from Villa. Dion Dublin headed wide a first time De La Cruz cross after the best build up play of the game.

Not many chances were created, as Villa were happy to go in at half time with a one goal lead.

Villa defender Gareth Barry missed a glorious chance barely a minute after the restart.

Delroy Facey came on to the field to replace Henrik Pedersen, which brought more confident attacking play to the Bolton side.

Bolton started to create more chances but Mike Whitlow and Kevin Nolan squandered them.

Bolton were denied a penalty when Michael Ricketts shirt was pulled but it wasn’t given. Ironically Bolton were then given a free kick for an identical offence barely thirty seconds later.

England striker Darius Vassell clinched the game for Villa with ten minutes remaining when substitute Vassell robbed Gudni Bergsson of the ball and fired past Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Turkish midfielder Akin Bulent was finally given his Premiership debut but his introduction wasn’t enough to spark Bolton towards a comeback.

Bolton never really got going in the game and will have to seriously improve if they are to survive this season. The victory over Newcastle seems so long ago.

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