Username
Password
Bolton 1 Aston Villa 0

Goalscorer!
By Matt Lawton
September 1 2002
A strong and committed performance from Bolton Wanderers ensured that they climbed from the bottom of the Premiership table with a 1-0 victory over Aston Villa.
It was a strong performance from all the Bolton team against a very average looking Villa side who still struggled to come into the game even when Paul Warhurst and Simon Charlton both left the field injured, blood pouring from Warhurst's head after he was elbowed while clearing a Villa corner kick.
Bolton dominated most of the game and could've taken the lead various times through Simon Charlton, Henrik Pedersen, Kevin Nolan, Michael Ricketts and Youri Djorkaeff while Paul Warhurst forced a magnificent save from Peter Enckleman in the Villa goal with a left footed drive from 30 yards out.
England striker Michael Ricketts scored the only goal of the game with a 56th minute penalty after the impressive, and again hard working, Henrik Pedersen rounded Enckleman only to be brought down. The Finnish goalkeeper then receiving only a yellow card to the dismay of the Bolton supporters who wanted, and expected, Enckleman to be given his marching orders. Ricketts strolled up and hit it to Enckleman's right to send most of the 22,500+ crowd present in to raptures.
There were a few anxious moments towards the end with Villa forcing Jussi Jaaskelainen into a series of superb saves to deny the visitors at least point. A fantastic point blank save from De La Cruz's deflected shot in the dying moments typified Bolton's performance and deserved victory.

UWO Man of the Match - Youri Djorkaeff. Another magical performance from the Fantastic Frenchman left Villa gaping at his immense skills as he ran the game from start to finish and showed levels of vision and fitness that most players could only dream of. Jussi Jaaskelainen deserves a mention for his heroics in the last few minutes and Henrik Pedersen worked his socks off as usual. Kevin Nolan looked comfortable on his return to the side and Michael Ricketts showed much improvement on his recently poor performances.

View a Printer Friendly version of this Story.

Bookmark or share this story with: