Aston Villa 1-2 BOlton: McLeish feels the heat as Bolton add to Villa woes

Bolton came from behind to earn a Barclays Premier League relegation lifeline and dragged Aston Villa into the thick of the survival battle with victory over Alex McLeish’s side last night.

Villa broke the deadlock through Stephen Warnock after 61 minutes but were rocked by two goals in two minutes from Martin Petrov, with a penalty, and David Ngog. The Trotters climbed above Blackburn into 18th spot, three points behind Villa and with a match in hand.

McLeish was forced to make three changes, with right-back Alan Hutton, midfielder Stephen Warnock and striker Emile Heskey replacing injured trio James Collins, Stephen Ireland and Gabriel Agbonlahor.

Bolton manager Owen Coyle brought striker Ngog into the side in place of Kevin Davies in the only change from the side which drew with Swansea.

Villa and Bolton fans joined forces during the first half, showing their appreciation for Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba, who is recovering from a cardiac arrest, with 60 seconds’ applause in the sixth minute, in recognition of his shirt number. And the joint applause was repeated after 19 minutes for Villa skipper Stiliyan Petrov, who is undergoing treatment for acute leukaemia.

It was Villa who created the best of the first-half chances but they had to wait until the 61st minute to break the deadlock when Warnock turned home a right-wing cross from Charles N’Zogbia.

Bolton retaliated and stung the home side by netting twice in two minutes to go in front. Petrov levelled from the penalty spot within 60 seconds after Carlos Cuellar was adjudged to have brought down Mark Davies. Then Chris Eagles had the time and space to pick out Ngog, who made no mistake from eight yards out.