McLeish seeks home comfort for Villa

Alex McLeish has challenged Aston Villa to improve their “rotten” home record and develop a ruthless streak ahead of tonight’s Barclays Premier League clash with fellow strugglers Bolton.

Villa have chalked up just four wins in front of their own fans this season – in addition to six draws – and lie only five points above the bottom three.

McLeish has seen Villa surrender the advantage in several of those games and knows the significance of achieving a positive result against Owen Coyle’s side.

The Scot said: “Our record at home is rotten. It’s not something we are proud of. It’s something that we can’t do anything about now but we’ve got to do something about the next game. We’ve got to go all out to win it.

“The stakes of the Barclays Premier League are enormous. This next game is huge for us and Bolton and we’ve got to go for it – the players are totally committed and ready for the cause.”

Bolton’s former Villa midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker says the pressure will be on his old club but McLeish said: “The pressure has been on us the whole season because of the expectation levels at this club. I don’t think it can get any bigger than it already is.”

Bolton manager Owen Coyle, meanwhile, has told his side they must cash in their games in hand to avoid following Wolves into the npower Championship.

Bolton are currently second bottom and four points from safety, but they have five games still to play, while Blackburn, Wigan and QPR all have just three more fixtures.

Coyle said: “Wolves are a fantastic club but sometimes things go against you. Nobody wants to see what happened to Wolves happen to their own club and if that’s an added incentive for us then all well and good.”