Match Reports

country flag The Championship Round 16
Aston Villa 2 - 0 Bolton Wanderers
Fri 02 November 2018 19:45

Aston Villa

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Bolton Wanderers

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Bolton Wanderers

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Game Report

Highlights

Aston Villa made it two home wins out of two under Dean Smith as they easily beat Bolton whose relegation fears increased. Jack Grealish's early goal, finally his first of the campaign, got Villa on their way before the impressive James Chester made it two after the break. Villa initially climbed to 13th prior to all the other Championship games being played this weekend. Bolton are 19th but sides below them have a chance to close the gap.

Detail

Villa brought back Conor Hourihane and Albert Adomah into their side. Bolton made mass changes with starts for David Wheater, Andy Taylor, Jason Lowe, Craig Noone and Will Buckley.

Villa were always in control of this game and ahead just four minutes in as Grealish showed coolness not always seen by him this term, running onto Tammy Abraham's pass and rounding Ben Alnwick before producing a neat finish.

Villa had chances to make it two particularly from Abraham who was not at his best in front of goal. But it took a superb goalline clearance from Chester to keep out Jack Hobbs' header for Bolton while Noone was denied by Orjan Nyland, who again looked shaky in the Villa goal.

Bolton though were poor in attack overall with Clayton Donaldson and Buckley in particular seeing very little of the ball.

Chester had seen a first half goal disallowed for offside but he headed home the second on 58 minutes in superb fashion from Grealish's free kick. Chester has now scored three times with his head this term.

Summary

A good win for Villa with Dean Smith now desperate to get a bit of a run going following a very difficult start to the campaign. Away form is now the area he will look to improve. Another Bolton performance that was not up to scratch and Phil Parkinson will be fearing the worst. They were poor going forward and he appears to be running out of ideas with yet another change of system and personnel.

Key

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