Aston Villa v Bolton Wanderers Pre-Match Thread

[bertlambshank]

I bet he plays the Davis and he scores.

[brontebilly]

I'd go with

Given
Herd, Cuellar, Baker (Collins if fit), Lichaj
Ireland, Gardner, Clark
Nzogbia, Gabby, Carruthers

Heskey to start if Gabby ain't fit

[Legion]

Don't care who scores as long as fucking someone does wearing claret and blue.

In the Bolton net.

[ozzjim]

Those mentioning the QPR home and Bolton away performance...we're a much less experienced side than those games because of the injuries in the meantime so comparisons aren't really worth making.

The one thing our relegation rivals have is leaders in their team and at this moment we quite simply don't. It's asking a lot of our young lads to win any of the remaining games as they just don't have the experience. Of our senior pros Heskey seems to be a meek bear while Collins, Ireland and Gabby lack the presence to rally the team. Without Stan and Dunne I can only really see Given inspiring confidence on the pitch and he's out of earshot for the rest of the team for most of the game. Ironically, it's one game where we could probably do with Nigel Reo Coker on our side.

We have missed him as much as anyone else that left last summer, and I would wager more. He leads in the middle and that is something we lack badly.

[Matt Collins]

I'm developing a nagging doubt we'll lose this. We have Sunderland 3-4 extremely good chances with some sloppy defending, getting sucked in and leaving players unmarked.

Let's face it, if bolton score first the chances are we'll be looking at a a draw at best. We're having to work extremely hard just to make chances, never mind score.

But Bolton are shit. Get right at them and score early on and it could be a good win.

We've had a few of these shit seasons in my time supporting villa, and we do normally pull a good home win out of the bag in a crunch game:
- Liverpool under Brian little
- blues under o'leary
- don't really remember under gt first or second time around (incidentally I only just thought this - for all the wonderful things sgt did for villa, we had 3 seasons under him in the top flight and almost got relegated in 2 of them).

[villasjf]

On top of our usual applause on 19 minutes for Stan I hope we join their fans on 6 minutes for Fabrice.

[Pete3206]

Well, this is it isn't it?

So many chances squandered to put ourselves safe, now this is the one which will tell us whether we can relax at Norwich or have to descend on Carrow Road with prayer mats.

Defeat will mean the Bolton close the gap to 3 points with a game in hand, while we face tough games against Albion and Spurs. A win puts a nice gap between us and Bolton and Blackburn.

We will win.

[Pete3206]

The thing about Fabrice. Don't think it's really necessary. He looks so well now, he could probably turn out for them tomorrow.

[Newquay_AVFC]

1-0 win. Heskey in the last minute.

[Concrete John]

A tense 1-0 for me.

Don't care who gets it or how we play, the 3 points are all important in this one!

[Risso]

I think we'll stay up, but lose this anyway just to make it a bit more tense.

[Simon Ward]

A win any type of win, but we need to play at a high tempo like the first 20 mins on Saturday and keep that going for the whole match.

[N'ZMAV]

I'm going to boo Reo-Coker tomorrow night. Only for the "Champions League Clubs chasing me" bullshit his agent was coming out with last summer.

[N'ZMAV]

The thing about Fabrice. Don't think it's really necessary. He looks so well now, he could probably turn out for them tomorrow.

He'd probably get in our team tomorrow.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Bolton team news from sportinglife.com

Bolton manager Owen Coyle is hoping Mark Davies is passed fit for his side's Barclays Premier League clash at Aston Villa on Tuesday night.

Davies took a knock in Saturday's draw against Swansea, and with Darren Pratley battling illness, Nigel Reo-Coker is the only fully fit central midfielder in the relegation battlers' senior squad.

Josh Vela, 18, made his debut from the bench in that game and could be involved again, but Lee Chung-yong is not yet recovered from a broken leg and FIFA clearance has yet to be received for former Rangers winger Gregg Wylde.