Bolton Wanderers v Aston Villa
Barclays Premier League,
The Reebok Stadium,
Saturday 25 April, 3pm Kick-Off.
It's three weeks since Wanderers were last at the Reebok Stadium when a convincing 4-1 victory over Gareth Southgate's men made it four wins from five on home soil.
Villa enter the match in indifferent form, having not won throughout March and a tough early April. However, the Villains look poised for European football next year in the newly formed UEFA Europa League.
Gary Megson could field three former Aston Villa players with Jlloyd Samuel, Gary Cahill and Gavin McCann set to play a part.
The referee for the clash is Lee Probert. The Gloucestershire man has officiated mainly in the Football League during the course of this season, with Saturday's game being only his tenth Premier League outing of the season. In total though, Probert has refereed 33 games, handing out 93 yellow cards and four reds.
Team News
Gary Megson still has long term absentees Ricardo Vaz Te and Joey O' Brien unavailable with knee injuries. Mark Davies is making progress but has not recovered in time to make it for this weekend's game, while Ricardo Gardner and Danny Shittu will be assessed prior to kick-off.
For Villa, Martin Laursen still has a knee problem whilst Wilfred Bouma could come into contention after turning out for the reserves after recovering from a dislocated ankle.
Opposition Manager- Martin O'Neill
Martin O'Neill took the helm at Villa Park in the summer of 2006.
The Villa hierarchy turned to him to bring European football back to the Midlands following a disappointing spell under David O'Leary.
O'Neill began his managerial career at Wycombe, where he won 52 games out of his 112 games, and took the side from the Conference to the then named Division Two. He then had a short stay at Norwich before being appointed as Leicester manager.
It was at Filbert Street where he really came to prominence, winning promotion in his first season to the Premier League. In the four seasons in the top flight as manager of Leicester he secured four top 10 finishes and two League Cup wins. This meant European football for the foxes, but it was not long until Celtic came knocking in 2000.
In Scotland his side won three SPL titles, three Scottish FA Cups and a Scottish League Cup. He also took them to the UEFA Cup final where they lost in extra time to Porto 3-2. O'Neill took a year out of the game in 2005, finishing with a Celtic record of 213 wins out of just 282 matches.
Opposition Key Player- Gabriel Agbonlahor
A product of the Villa academy, Agbonlahor was a prolific scorer at both youth team and reserve team level. After short loan spells at Sheffield Wednesday and Watford, he was handed his Premier League debut by David O Leary at Everton in the 2005/2006 season where he scored in a 4-1 defeat.
Perhaps the moment he will be most remembered for by Villa supporters is when he scored an 86th minute winner against Midland rivals Birmingham City in the 2007/2008 season.
Agbonlahor has 11 Premier league goals this season including two in the 4-2 victory for Villa over Bolton earlier in the season.
He has two international caps for England after making his debut in November 2008 against Germany.
Listen Live
If you can't make it to the Reebok Stadium on Saturday afternoon, you can listen to live uninterrupted commentary on Wanderers World with the club's new official commentator Phil Gittins and special guest summariser Tony Kelly. The broadcast starts at 2.30pm.
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