Game #4744
Wednesday, 1 January 2003
Attendance: 31,838
Won
Premier League
14th (-)
Bolton Wanderers
Last 5: 🟥 🟥 🟥 🟩 🟩
Villa Park
Villa win consecutive Premier League games for the first time for the first time this season to make it eight wins in twenty two Premier League games under Graham Taylor but they remain 14th in the table.
Aston Villa
2-0
Bolton Wanderers
Assist(s) | Alan Wright | 8’ |
KEY MAN
Dion Dublin opens the scoring on 8' to secure Villa consecutive wins for the first time this season and make it eight wins in twenty two Premier League games under Graham Taylor, Wednesday, 1 January 2003
RELATED MATCHES
MATCH TIMELINE
⚽ | 8’ Goal, 1-0, Dion Dublin, Assist by Alan Wright
🕒 | HT Aston Villa 1-0 Bolton Wanderers
🟨 | 55’ Booking, Thomas Hitzlsperger
🟨 | 61’ Booking, Lee Hendrie
🔁 | 66’ Sub off, Juan Pablo Ángel, Sub on, Darius Vassell
🔁 | 66’ Sub off, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Sub on, Mark Kinsella
⚽ | 80’ Goal, 2-0, Darius Vassell
🔁 | 88’ Sub off, Ulises de la Cruz, Sub on, Stephen Cooke 🟢
🕒 | FT Aston Villa 2-0 Bolton Wanderers
ON THIS DAY
Villa open the New Year with a win - their second in succession, and third in six League games - taking Graham Taylor’s haul to 11 wins in 35 Premier League matches, 16 defeats and 8 draws.
Aston Villa
European Cup / Champions League: 🏆
League Champions: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Last Trophy: 1995-96
Bolton Wanderers
European Cup / Champions League: ❌
League Champions: ❌
FA Cup Winners: 🏆🏆🏆🏆
League Cup Winners: ❌
Last Trophy: 1957-58
FIXTURE HISTORY
Previous 5 vs. Bolton: 🟥 🟨 🟩 🟥 🟥
FIXTURE DETAILS
Season | 2002-03 |
Matchday | #30 |
League Game | #22 |
Manager Game | #43 |
Wednesday, 1 January 2003
MATCH SUMMARY
Manager: Graham Taylor | 🏴 | Worksop, 2002-2003
Referee: Matt Messias | 🏴 | Barnsley, 1997-2006
Kick off: 3.00pm
HT Score: 🟩 1-0
FT Score: 🟩 2-0
FT Result: 🟩 Won
Last 5: 🟥 🟥 🟥 🟩 🟩
MATCH OFFICIALS
Referee: Matt Messias | 🏴 | Barnsley, 1997-2006
Previous 5: 🟩 🟨 🟩
Last Match: 🟩 6 November 2002, League Cup, Villa 3-0 Oxford, Kassam Stadium.
Cards: 🟨 🟨
CARDS
Villa
🟨 🟨
Bolton Wanderers
None
TEAM NEWS
Alan Wright (first start in 22) Lee Hendrie and Ulises de la Cruz replace Mustapha Hadji, Mark Kinsella and Ronny Johnsen.
TEAM STATS
Starting XI Average Age
| 25.69 |
Oldest Player |
CF Dion Dublin | 🏴 | 33.72 |
Youngest Player |
CB Rob Edwards | 🏴 | 20.03 |
MANAGER
Graham Taylor | 🏴 |
MANAGER
Sam Allardyce | 🏴 |
Aston Villa
GK Stefan Postma | 🇳🇱 |
LB Alan Wright | 🏴 | 🔥 |
CB Olof Mellberg | 🇸🇪 |
CB Rob Edwards | 🏴 |
RB Ulises de la Cruz | 🇪🇨 | 🔁 |
RB Jlloyd Samuel | 🏴 |
M Lee Hendrie | 🏴 | 🟨 |
M Gareth Barry | 🏴 |
M Thomas Hitzlsperger | 🇩🇪 | 🟨 | 🔁 |
CF Dion Dublin | 🏴 | ⚽ |
CF Juan Pablo Ángel | 🇨🇴 | 🔁 |
Bolton Wanderers
GK Jussi Jääskeläinen | 🇫🇮 |
LB Simon Charlton | 🏴 |
LB Ricardo Gardner | 🇯🇲 |
CB Guðni Bergsson | 🇮🇸 |
CB Mike Whitlow | 🏴 |
RB Anthony Barness | 🏴 |
M Per Frandsen | 🇩🇰 | 🔁 |
M Jay-Jay Okocha | 🇳🇬 |
M Kevin Nolan | 🏴 | 🔁 |
CF Michael Ricketts | 🏴 |
CF Henrik Pedersen | 🇩🇰 | 🔁 |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 F Darius Vassell | 🏴 | ⚽ | for CF Juan Pablo Ángel | 🇨🇴 | 66’ |
🔁 M Mark Kinsella | 🇮🇪 | for M Thomas Hitzlsperger | 🇩🇪 | 66’ |
🔁 M Stephen Cooke | 🏴 | 🟢 | for RB Ulises de la Cruz | 🇪🇨 | 88’ |
SUBSTITUTES
🔁 | M Per Frandsen | 🇩🇰 | (M Stig Tøfting | 🇩🇰 |)
🔁 | M Kevin Nolan | 🏴 | (M Bülent Akin | 🇹🇷 |)
🔁 | CF Henrik Pedersen | 🇩🇰 | (CF Delroy Facey | 🏴 |)
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Peter Enckelman | 🇫🇮 |
CB Liam Ridgewell | 🏴 |
UNUSED SUBSTITUTES
GK Kevin Poole (ex) | 🏴 |
CB Danny Livesey | 🏴 |
SQUAD STATS
1st XI:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 6/11
Homegrown: 5/11
Squad:
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 9/16
Homegrown: 8/16
MATCHDAY SQUAD
SQUAD STATS
Home Nation 🏴 🏴 🏴 🇬🇧 : 6/14
MATCHDAY SQUAD
UNAVAILABLE
Not reported
UNAVAILABLE
Not Recorded
Player Abbreviations:
GK : Goalkeeper
LB, RB, FB : Left Back, Right Back, Full Back
CB, D : Centre Back, Defender
M, W : Midfielder. Winger
F, CF : Forward, Centre Forward
🟢 : Debut 🔴 : Final Game
Symbols:
⚽ | Goal
🔥 | Assist
🔁 | Substitution
🟨 | Booking
🟥 | Sending off
🆘 | Poor refereeing performance
DEBUT APPEARANCES
FINAL APPEARANCES
MATCH STATS
Not reported
TABLE

PROGRAMME



MATCHDAY QUOTES
"Darius Vassell took his goal without thinking and I'm delighted with the win.
“We’ve had an inconsistent season.”
Graham Taylor.
*BBC Sport*
Wednesday, 1 January, 2003.
*Villa outclass Bolton*
Goals from Dion Dublin - his third in three games - and Darius Vassell were enough to put the brakes on Bolton’s recent resurgence in a hard-fought game at Villa Park.
Villa’s win moved them 10 points clear of the relegation zone as their good run of home form continued.
But Bolton - who paid the price for some careless defending - find themselves back in trouble at the wrong end of the table.
The visitors, beaten just twice in their previous nine league games, made a confident start and a JLloyd Samuel mistake let in Bolton’s Jay-Jay Okocha, but his shot was blocked.
Villa’s eighth-minute opener came against the run of play as they hit Bolton on the counter-attack in their first real attack of the game Alan Wright’s cross from the left outfoxed the daydreaming Bolton defence and Lee Hendrie’s intelligent dummy gave Dublin the space to sidefoot the ball into the net from 10 yards.
Gareth Barry wasted the chance to double Villa’s lead in the 16th minute when he headed straight at Jussi Jaaskelainen from Tomas Hitzlsperger’s corner.
Bolton had chances to recover, with striker Kevin Nolan firing over from six yards on 20 minutes after getting on the end of Jay-Jay Okocha’s inch-perfect cross.
Ricardo Gardner then completely miscued from a similar position and Michael Ricketts swivelled inside the box but his effort lacked accuracy.
Villa keeper Stefan Postma, keeping his place despite Peter Enckelman’s recovery from injury, saved good shots from Nolan and Henrik Pedersen as Okocha’s creativity put the home side on the back foot.
Nevertheless, Villa continued to look dangerous on the break with Juan Pablo Angel having plenty of success in the air against the Bolton back four.
And Angel’s knockdown to Dublin put Ulises de la Cruz in, but a poor first touch from the Ecuadorian saw the chance vanish.
Villa made a promising start to the second half, but they squandered another great chance within 60 seconds of the restart - the story of Villa’s season so far.
De la Cruz’s deep cross found Barry unmarked 10 yards out, but his shot flew just past the post.
But second-half substitute Darius Vassell showed his team-mates the way on 80 minutes after he capitalised on Gudni Bergsson’s error at the back.
Vassell caught the defender dithering in possession and robbed him of the ball before coolly finishing from a narrow angle to ensure a deserved three points for Graham Taylor’s men.