Megson - We are confident

Megson: Has confidence

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Bolton manager Gary Megson says his side are full of confidence ahead of their trip to Aston Villa on Saturday.

The Trotters travel to Villa Park on the back of a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Chelsea, and currently lie in the bottom half of the Premier League with 11 points from 10 games.

But Megson insists that, despite the heavy defeat at the Reebok last weekend, his team are still in good spirits ahead of the Villa clash.

When asked if he thought their confidence had been knocked, Megson said: "Not at all - in fact, I would say it has even gone up.

"With 11 against 11, Chelsea didn't score against us and we gave not far off as good as we got.

"I accept that their quality was better than ours but they knew that they had been in a game for 45 minutes.

"If Jlloyd (Samuel) hadn't been sent off, I'm sure it would have been different, and I didn't feel it should have been 4-0 - the fourth one was offside.

Pride

"If we had had our full complement on and we had got into the second half and started the way we did with 10 men, we might have got a better result. I think we did ourselves proud."

The Bolton boss hopes defensive duo Gary Cahill and Zat Knight can step up on their return to Villa Park, although full-back Samuel is suspended against his former side.

Megson says it is time for his former Villa players to perform against their old club, and he believes they will want to prove a point.

"I'm sure they will feel like that - being ex-Villa players they will want to go and put a show on," he added.

"In the past we've had ex-Villa players like Gavin McCann, Jlloyd Samuel and Gary Cahill who to be perfectly honest, have never done themselves justice when they have gone back to Villa Park.

"It will be nice if we can go there and the two lads perform in a way that I know they can."