Saturday’s early game set up worrying omens for this game – Boro had managed to hold Arsenal to a 1-1 draw meaning that a win at home to Bolton would leapfrog us over the London team into 4th spot in the league. How many times had other games gone our way to hand us such an opportunity, only for us to spurn the chance?

Not this time though.  3 points taken with some confidence and only a late consolation goal for the visitors stopped Villa edging Arsenal’s goal difference to boot.

The first 10 minutes started out a little edgey.  Villa had plenty of the possession and were even knocking a few passes together in the middle of the park.  But still, things were a little flat and there didn’t seem any urgency to put Bolton to the sword from the off.

Then on the 17th minute, totally against the run of play, Kevin Davies knocked a ball from the byline to the near post.  Johan Elmander connected with the cross and his cheeky back heel beat Brad Friedel somewhat easier than might be expected.  A lapse in concentration all around from the Villans.

However, I think we looked strong enough up to this point not to be overly concerned.  Surely we could come back from this early set back.  4 minutes later a Bolton corner leads to the Villa crossbar being rattled.  Mmmm, OK, maybe not so confident now.

But then a sign of intention.  A Milner free kick headed wide by Curtis Davies is followed up right after by the equaliser from Gabby.  A long ball from Laursen was nodded on by Gabby around the D who then skillfully volleyed in, beating Jaaskelainen at the near post.  A very well taken goal it has to be said.

Villa re-took control of the game from here and around the 40th minute the pressure paid off.  The hard working Barry curled a ball in from the left for Laursen to head in.  I said he was due a goal didn’t I?!? Well, Nostradamus I’m not; replays later showed that the goal was actually nodded into his own net by Kevin Davies and it was later credited as an O.G.

It looked like we were going to go into the break at 2-1, despite Villa encouragingly pushing for a third.  And then the ref, who’s name I can’t be bothered to look up, completely lost it.  Agent Gary Cahill blatantly handballed in the area.  Even if the ref somehow did miss the incident Ashley Young’s claims should have been convincing enough to consult with his assistant.  The fact the assistant was furiously waving his flag should also have sent the man in black over to get a second opinion.  One look at Cahill with his face in his hands should have been one final reason to question his judgment.  He looked for a moment like a little kid who didn’t know what to do.  All the evidence was before him that he’d missed something, but instead of getting some advice he decided not to award anything and waved play on.  Bizarre.

The 2nd half picked up where the first ended.  Villa bossing things, without looking particularly like scoring.  In ordinary circumstances you might feel comfortable that we’ll just see out the game and pick up the 3 points.  But any Villan knows it’s never that simple when Villa are playing and we always need that 2 goal margin before we can start to relax a little.

Finally it came on 68 minutes when more great work by Young on left was followed up with a perfect cross that Gabby barely had to think about to nod past the Bolton keeper.  3-1.  Phew!!

Immediately afterward MON did something he hasn’t done much of lately; a substitution.  James Milner, obviously still feeling the effects of man-flu, made way for Reo-Coker.

Not much happened for 10 minutes until Man of the Match Gabby sets up Ash to strike from the edge of the box.  The ball took a deflection, but was still a quality strike which deserved to ripple the net.  4-1, a certain 3 points.  We had taken the chance and moved 2 points clear of Arsenal into 4th spot.  The 4th goal also meant we edged ahead of their goal difference.

The obviously relaxed Martin O’Neill decided to give Ash the applause he deserves and swapped him out for Marlon Harewood.  The crowd responded with a quick burst of “feed the hare” which made me giggle at the irony.

Bolton did manage to get a consolation goal which might give MON cause to be a little concerned about concentration at the back.  Without wanting to take anything away from Bolton, both goals were very preventable.  Anyway, despite this late set back MON was on a roll and made a third substitution.  You read that correctly, he brought on another of our recent man-flu victims when Nicky Shorey got a brief run out in place of Gabby.

Marlon Harewood probably deserves a goal and tried to create one out of nothing before the final whistle by harassing Jaaskelainen while trying to clear an under hit back pass.  The ball ricocheted off the big fella to the left and he spotted Sidwell running into the box, but over hit the pass and the outstretched ginger ninja missed the chance to restore the goal difference advantage over Arsenal.

And then it was over.  4-2.  Comfortable enough, but not without a few areas of concern.  But the main protagonists stepped up and delivered enough quality to put away Bolton, namely Barry, A Young, Gabby & Laursen.  None of the others had a particularly bad game, but we need one or two others to step up more often if we’re going to mount a consistent challenge at the top end of the table.

Sidwell in particular seemed to be under instructions to get forward often to support Gabby, but seemed to somehow mistime his efforts to be there when he shouldn’t and not when he should.  The overall effect was that he didn’t make the contribution to the team he’s capable of. But I’m not overly concerned about that, I simply think that MON has been experimenting lately with instructing different midfielders to get in the box. Barry was clearly under these instructions during the Fulham game and could easily have netted a hatrick with his head.

But looking for other encouraging signs I noted that our attacks are less focused down the left than they were earlier in the season.  Overall the team is also showing greater balance in their positional play.  The midfield trio of Petrov, Barry and Sidwell seem to be developing a bond and trust to play where they should instead of all covering the same blades of grass.

We’re still very much work in progress, but we’re really starting to look like a cohesive unit.  We still lack the lethal cutting edge up front, but our patience is to be commended.  All the great teams have that patience and confidence that their efforts will eventually pay off and I think we’re developing that same winning attitude.

I always say that winning is a habit and I think I’m seeing signs that it’s habit this Villa team are starting to get a taste for.  Now let’s see if we can tempt our taste buds with another win in Hamburg on Wednesday and top out our UEFA Cup group.