Ricketts spot on for Bolton

Michael Ricketts was the man on target, slotting home a second-half penalty after Peter Enckelman suffered a rush of blood and hauled down Henrik Pedersen.

Villa had chances, although Bolton were the better team in the second-half, and will point to a disallowed Juan Pablo Angel goal that robbed them of a share of the spoils.

Darius Vassell was lively in the opening exchanges, stealing in at the far past to fire in a volley that flew inches wide of goal.

The forward forced a fine save from Jussi Jaaskelainen later in the half, but that was his final contribution as he limped out with a hamstring strain and is now a doubt for England`s friendly with Portugal on Saturday.

Youri Djorkaeff was the architect of the majority of Bolton`s play, and he narrowly missed opening the scoring with a looping header after exchanging passes with Paul Warhurst.

Warhurst was also in the thick of things, forcing a fine save out of Enckelman, then picking up a head injury that required stitches.

Pedersen came to the fore at the start of the second-half, having a goal disallowed, wasting a gilt-edged opportunity, before winning a penalty.

Moments after the re-start, Pedersen rounded Enckelman and tucked the ball into the empty net, but his celebrations were cut short after the linesman, rightly, flagged for handball.

A neat opening then saw him one-on-one with Enckelman, but the Dane snatched at his effort and dragged the shot across the face of goal.

Pedersen did not let the setbacks affect him, and his persistence was rewarded when he raced clear, latching onto another Djorkaeff pass, before being brought down by Enckelman.

Ricketts kept his cool to slot the spot-kick past Enckelman with real aplomb.

Bolton took great confidence from the goal, and Ricketts, set free by another smart Djorkaeff pass, fired over the bar from an acute angle.

The other linesman had a major bearing on the outcome of the match, as he flagged Angel for offside shortly before he scored, but the Colombian looked onside when latching onto Marcus Allback`s pass.

Gudni Bergsson almost turned the ball into his own net after a cross was sent in, but Jaaskelainen showed superb reactions to tip the effort wide.

Ulises de la Cruz also went close with a header, but Jaaskelainen proved up to the task and Bolton took the spoils from the Reebok encounter to move level on points with Graham Taylor`s men.