Many apologies for this but, due to being in the internet wasteland that is my in laws for the past day or so, we`re a little late. I had the chance in Moreton Wetherspoons but that went up the swanny when Mrs X wanted to check her fantasy league team and the lap top battery ran out. She`s in the top two thousand in the Telegraph by the way.
As such we`re a day behind, so the North Dingles will have to wait until tomorrow.
Anyway, for those of you that have been living on a different planet for a couple of weeks, the sight of a Bolton team not kicking lumps out the opposition, playing the long ball and generally being the pariah of the Premier League will not have come as any great surprise. To those of us that witnessed the game at The Emirates it showed just what can be achieved when the ball is played primarily along the floor and the midfield get a hold of the game and don`t let go.
Not that this looked likely in the first twenty minutes when Villa could have had a couple of goals before Ashley Young, this site`s player to watch from yesterday, did a mazy run from left to right and was clumsily challenged by Samantha just outside the area to the right centre. There was no need for the midfielder to put a lazy foot in as it appeared the only place that Young was going was towards the right wing and the enigma that is Paul Robinson. Young picked himself up and drove the free kick to the right of Shaggy, who appeared to take a small lean to the left that left him out of position to save the shot that nestled in the corner. That the Villa players all ran to their caretaker manager says a lot about the man and, at that time, it appeared that all the talk about this being his final game making the players play better wasn`t just hot air.
Then it turned out that, indeed, hot air was what it was.
It is interesting to note that the players that had been criticised by all and sundry last week for being nothing more than bullies, suddenly started playing the ball along the floor. That this coincided with the departure of AOB through injury and the introduction of Sam Ricketts cannot be dismissed. AOB is a reliable back up but Ricketts has more ability and that is what was needed. Just as Cahill compliments that more bullish nature of Zat Knight, booked for a crude challenge on a Villa player that forty eight hours of forgetting has made me forget his name, so does Ricketts and now that AOB has been ruled out, my choice of replacement central defender can now play the next two games.
Once Villa had scored they seemed to take their foot off whatever pedal they had it on and put it in reverse, giving T`Wanderers the chance to take control. Samantha, still seemingly getting to grips with the new season and Our Yank effectively snuffed out any attacking threat the Villa had. However, chances were few and far between, the best being a point blank Luke Young block from SuperKev.
The captain didn`t make any mistake a few minutes later. A Yank cross evaded everybody in the box but the Crocked Bulgarian was wise to the move, picking it up and putting the ball onto SuperKev`s toe. A spin and a turn and the next thing Friedel knew the ball had whistled over him and into the net. A couple of hours later, Sarah-Jane Mee (she nice) on Sky Sports said it was a goal that you just had to see. Those that accuse the captain of being one dimensional should look at the goal and then send letters of apology to him for it was a goal that most strikers aspire to. One more feather into his cap and another blast at those who think that the only goals Bolton score are of the route one variety. Someone, somewhere is totting up the un-Bolton like goals that we score and are fast running out of paper.
After that there could only be one winner. Richard Dunne fouled TMS, giving another solid display and there should have been a penalty. Mike Dean missed it. To level things up he missed Sir Knight ripping John Carew`s nice new shirt in the second half. At least, that`s what some people say. Me, I think they`re grasping at straws.
The home team had a couple of glimpses. Luke Young had a try, a nice try, but didn`t get anywhere, before Shaggy, who, you would expect, really can`t believe his luck having virtually nothing to do in two of his three games so far, fumbled a Downing shot before jumping on it before Villa`s cumbersome forward line could react.
Villa, or at least their goalkeeper, held on. Petrov, in probably his best performance in a white shirt so far, swung a boot that the American tipped over the bar. He then blocked a shot from TMS before pulling off the best save when Matty Taylor, on as a late sub for Petrov, did one of this trademark things and Friedel got a big left hand to it.
And that was that. If you`d asked me at the beginning of the game would I have taken a draw, yeah, probably. You suspect that if MacDonald had been in charge of Villa for the rest of the season they would struggle. As for Bolton, after last week`s now best forgotten game, it is only onwards and upwards.
Who`s next?
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