ASTON VILLA vs BOLTON - MATCH PREVIEW

By Ryan Ghee
December 9 2005

Aston Villa travel to the Reebok Stadium on Saturday afternoon to face a Bolton side who have won four straight home games on the bounce. With The Villans having picked up seven points from their last three games, a win tomorrow would see them finally start to creep away from the relegation zone.

Aston Villa team news: Kevin Phillips is a major doubt for the match after he picked up an ankle injury in training earlier in the week. If he fails to recover in time, Juan Pablo Angel will continue his search for a first goal of the season with Milan Baros to play alongside him. The only other expected change to the team that drew with Newcastle is that James Milner is likely to replace Lee Hendrie on the right side of midfield.

Bolton team news: Henrik Pederson has failed to shake off his achilles problem so will miss out for Wanderers yet again. With Sam Allardyce likely to start with the same eleven that defeated Arsenal last weekend, Jay-Jay Okocha will have to make do with a place on the bench.

History of this fixture: The two teams have met on 147 seperate occasions with Villa winning 57, Bolton winning 55, and 35 ending all square. The last time the two teams met was on the opening day of the current campaign when after an explosive opening 11 minutes, with each team scoring twice, the match ended as a 2-2 draw. In the two meetings last season it was Villa who had the upper hand; securing a 1-1 draw at home before defeating Bolton 2-1 at the Reebok.

Match Betting: Aston Villa win - 10/3
Bolton win - 8/11
Draw - 9/4