Villa held by brave Bolton

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Aston Villa 1-1 Bolton

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Juan Pablo Angel missed a late penalty as Aston Villa were held at home by Bolton at Villa Park.

Angel was brought down in the area by Ivan Campo with five minutes to go but saw his spot-kick brilliantly saved by Jussi Jaaskelainen.

After an abject first period the visitors stunned the home crowd by taking the lead just 52 seconds after the interval, when Kevin Nolan turned Alpay and fired into the net.

O'Leary settles for draw

Angel levelled the score 12 minutes later when he neatly side-footed home from outside the box after Lee Hendrie's clever lay-off, but despite a host of chances Villa could not go on to claim all three points.

Both sides had started out with gusto and looked keen to improve on their lowly Premiership positions.

But the closest anyone came to breaking the deadlock before the interval was 15 minutes in, when Angel curled a delightful free-kick onto the angle of post and crossbar with Jaaskelainen beaten.

As Bolton failed to clear their lines, Angel got on the end of Gavin McCann's cross but flashed a header wide of Jaaskelainen's right-hand post.

KEY MOMENTS 15 mins: Angel curls free-kick onto angle of crossbar and post 46 mins: Nolan controls Davies' flick-on and scores 58 mins: Angel plants a shot from Hendrie's pass into the net 66 mins: Vassell hits the post 85 mins: Angel is brought down but misses the penalty

Bolton held their own in the middle of the pitch but their attacking endeavours were consistently curtalied by a poor final pass, lively Greek midfielder Stelios Giannakopoulos the principal culprit.

The visitors best opportunities fell just before half-time, as Jay-Jay Okocha fired over from the edge of the box after good work from Ricardo Gardner.

Then in the final minute of the half Giannakopoulos latched on to a long pass and slotted wide of an empty goal as Sorensen rushed from goal.

Bolton fury at ref Styles

Villa replaced the injured Sorensen with Stefan Postma at the break and the Dutch keeper's first job was to pick the ball out of the net.

Kevin Davies flicked on a long pass from Simon Charlton and Nolan turned past a static Alpay to lash the ball into the net for their first away goal in the Premiership since 15 March.

Villa had failed to get going and they could have been further embarrassed when Giannakopoulos forced a good stop from Postma and an unmarked Campo headed wide from the resulting corner.

The ref was awful, he almost ruined quite an enjoyable game From Tom Clarke Have your say on 606

But David O'Leary's men hauled themselves back into the game and just before the hour mark Angel side-footed with stunning accuracy into Jaaskelainen's top corner to level matters.

The game had burst into life and Giannakopoulos thought he had Bolton ahead again four minutes later when he sent a fierce right-foot shot into the side-netting.

Vassell then sent a header crashing against the post and two more rebound shots from Angel were hacked away by desperate Bolton defenders.

Villa were awarded their spot-kick with five minutes to go after Campo was adjudged to have wrestled Angel to the ground, but the Colombian's strike was superbly turned away by Jaaskelainen.

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Aston Villa: Sorensen (Postma 45), Delaney, Mellberg, Alpay, Samuel, Hendrie, McCann, Barry, Whittingham (Allback 56), Vassell, Angel.
Subs not used: Dublin, De la Cruz, Kinsella.

Booked: Hendrie.

Bolton: Jaaskelainen, N'Gotty, Charlton, Thome, Gardner, Nolan (Jardel 80), Campo, Frandsen, Okocha, Davies, Giannakopoulos (Little 90).
Subs not used: Poole, Pedersen, Hunt.

Booked: Thome, Okocha, Frandsen, Campo, Gardner.

Attendance: 30,229.

Referee: R Styles (Hampshire).