By Mark Heys
August 11 2005

After three months of waiting the new season is finally upon us as Bolton Wanderers travel down to Villa Park to take on Aston Villa.

Wanderers boss Sam Allardyce includes new signings Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye and Ian Walker in squad to travel down to the Midlands but Mexican forward Jared Borgetti has been given some time away from the UEFA Cup hopefuls to adapt to his new surroundings and will therefore be unavailable.

Also missing for Bolton will be injured winger Khalilou Fadiga and the suspended Bruno N'Gotty.

Villa are able to call upon Danish international Martin Laursen after he came through last week's friendly match with FC Utrecht unscathed following recent knee surgery. However, there still remains a doubt as to whether recent signing Patrik Berger will be fit for the game.

Kevin Phillips, Aaron Hughes and Stuart Taylor are all named in the Villa squad following their summer moves to the club, whilst midfielder Lee Hendrie plays his last game before serving a ban.

The last two league meetings at Villa Park have both ended in 1-1 draws. Last season a Gary Speed header gave Bolton a share of the points after Fernando Hierro had previously diverted the ball through his own net to give Villa the lead. In the season prior, Villa's Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel had cancelled out an earlier strike by Wanderers midfielder Kevin Nolan.

Bolton's last win away at Villa came just over seven years ago when goals from Neil Cox, Bob Taylor and Nathan Blake gave the Trotters a much needed 3-1 victory in the Premiership.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

30/08/1995 ASTON VILLA 1 (Yorke) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

10/03/1996 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 ASTON VILLA 2 (Yorke 2)

04/10/1997 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 ASTON VILLA 1 (Milosevic)

25/04/1998 ASTON VILLA 1 (Taylor) BOLTON WANDERERS 3 (Cox,Taylor,Blake)

27/10/2001 ASTON VILLA 3 (Angel 2, Vassell) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Ricketts 2)

30/03/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 3 (Delaney OG, Bobic, Nolan) ASTON VILLA 2 (Warhurst OG, Taylor)

01/09/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Ricketts) ASTON VILLA 0

01/01/2003 ASTON VILLA 2 (Dublin, Vassell) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

05/10/2003 ASTON VILLA 1 (Angel) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan)

10/04/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Pedersen, Davies) ASTON VILLA 2 (Crouch, Hendrie)

13/11/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Diouf) ASTON VILLA 2 (McCann, Hitzlsperger)

23/04/2005 ASTON VILLA 1 (Hierro OG) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Speed)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 12

Won: 3

Drawn: 3

Lost: 6

CONNECTIONS

Franz Carr, Neil Cox, Sasa Curcic, Gareth Farrelly, Stuart Gray, John Gregory, Kevin Poole, Bruce Rioch, Bryan Small, Alan Thompson

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED VILLA

Villa's Stan Collymore and Andy Todd of Bolton where both sent off for fighting in the final minutes of this fixture in October 1997.