After another shambles against Crystal Palace at the weekend, almost the last thing Aston Villa needed was a midweek EFL Cup trip to Bolton Wanderers – but it was Tuesday and fans didn’t really have a choice.
It was a semi decent start in many ways, but we were playing a League One side. Having failed to take advantage despite basically playing our full squad, Bolton cut through us on 24 minutes to take the lead.
Yes folks, it was going to be another one of those nights, and Douglas Luiz scored direct from a corner ten minutes before the break to save some major blushes and it’s saved me from rambling about how inept the performance became.
Thank God for the half time break – let’s hope that was our bad half.
It looked like it might be, although we were far from great. Good chances fell to Lucas Digne and Danny Ings, but we were far from comfortable or in complete control. Long balls over the top, mainly to Ollie Watkins, is not a game plan though Stevie.
We then got a slice of luck, an offside Danny Ings went through one on one and having effectively kicked the ball out for a goal kick, their stopper was nice enough to give him the gentlest of touches – so penalty it was, and Ings made no mistake.
2-1 – would that inject some much needed confidence? It seemed to, and after a lovely bit of play (nice to see some isn’t it) on the left hand side, Digne was through once again and this time he feigned the cross and struck past the keeper for 3-1.
With the game drawing to a close, that penalty decision broke Bolton’s resolve and the third ended the game as a contest, but there was still time for Leon Bailey to get himself on the scoresheet for 4-1.
You can only beat what’s in front of you, but I certainly won’t be alone in thinking this was a very different game and scoreline without that very lucky (and wrong) offside call that led to the penalty.
Not good enough, for long enough, for a Man of the Match – but maybe that relief and shot of confidence might cause something to click?
University of Bolton Stadium
EFL Cup - Round Two
23/08/2022 8:45 pm
Referee: Andrew Kitchen
| Bolton Wanderers | Aston Villa | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charles (24) | Douglas Luiz (36), Ings (pen 63), Digne (66), Bailey (87) | ||||||
| Dixon | Martinez | ||||||
| Bradley | 82 | Young | |||||
| Aimson | Chambers | ||||||
| Almeida Santos | Mings | ||||||
| Johnston | Digne | ||||||
| John | Douglas Luiz | 84 | |||||
| Lee | Kamara | 71 | |||||
| Williams | McGinn | ||||||
| Afolayan | 71 | Coutinho | 71 | ||||
| Kachunga | 68 | Ings | 82 | ||||
| Charles | Watkins | 71 | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Jones | Cash | ||||||
| Sadlier | 82 | Konsa | |||||
| Bakayoko | 71 | Buendia | 71 | ||||
| Iredale | Olsen | ||||||
| Morley | Bailey | 71 | |||||
| Trafford | Archer | 82 | |||||
| Dempsey | 68 | J Ramsey | 71 | ||||
| Thomason | Iroegbunam | 84 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 7 | Goal attempts | 16 |
| 3 | On Target | 11 |
| 3 | Corners | 4 |
| 14 | Fouls | 9 |
| 3 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 44 | % | 56 |