Well, it is a point, but maybe we deserved more - I thought it was a pretty equal game but the ref had a nightmare today. Villa might have got a draw anyway if the ref was awake, but you just don’t know, and it’s not wrong to say we were robbed.
Bolton took the lead on 22 minutes, when Anelka won a free kick 20 yards out, then curled it expertly into the top corner. It was his seventh goal of the season, six in the league. When you’re playing for the team at the bottom of the league that’s not bad!
But despite controlling most of the game, we just couldn’t get another, and on 56 minutes we were punished, albeit by some strange refereeing. The linesman had given a throw to the home side, but as we switched off and moved upfield, the referee reversed the decision and Villa were away before any defenders could react, and Agbonlahor put in a cross which Luke Moore chested in.
And late on we should have won it when Gardner collected a bad clearance inside the penalty area and Stuart Taylor couldn’t hold his shot, but Diouf put the rebound over the bar from a tricky angle.
I was happy with the effort. At times I didn’t think we could sustain it, and we weren’t as solid as in the first half, but it gives us a bit of optimism to go forward.
- Gary Megson
