Sport-Blog.com

Saturday 16 Dec 2006

Aston Villa 0 Bolton 1
Bolton keeper, Jussi Jaaskelainen, had great game to help his side stay on course for their quest of European qualification. This Bolton team does have high ambitions, and they believe that it is possible to gatecrash the top four to snatch a Champions League spot. "There is an opportunity if we want to take it," said Allardyce. "It is not beyond us now to try and compete at that level for two reasons. Firstly we have not got a big squad but the players we have got are talented, so if we keep them fit we have got a chance. Secondly all the other teams that are up there are playing in the the Champions League and we're not. That gives us a little bit more respite in terms of the number of games we have got to compete in compared to them."

Villa boss Martin O'Neill on referee Mark Clattenburg's decision to award the penalty, "I have seen it and I think it was particularly harsh. I think (Nicolas) Anelka struck the back of Stilian Petrov's leg, but we didn't have the luck today. We should have won the game, no argument. We should have won the game by a good distance. We were thrusting forward at every opportunity. The effort we put in and the football we played was an absolute delight."

Bolton boss Sam Allardyce said, "We were a bit fortunate at times but you have to give the players credit for the way they defended today. There was a poor miss by Villa in the second half - that's where you pay the price in the Premiership. We have faltered in the past but this time it may not be the case."

Aston Villa
Gabor Kiraly, Gareth Barry, Gary Cahill, Olof Mellberg, Liam Ridgewell, Steven Davis, Gavin McCann (Craig Gardner), Stiliyan Petrov, Gabriel Agbonlahor, Milan Baros (Juan Pablo Angel), Chris Sutton
Subs Not Used: Olejnik, Bouma, Hughes

Bolton
Jussi Jaaskelainen, Nicky Hunt, Abdoulaye Meite (Tal Ben-Haim), Abdoulaye Diagne-Faye, Stelios Giannakopoulos (Idan Tal (Ricardo Gardner)), Ramos Ivan Campo, Kevin Nolan, Gary Speed, Nicolas Anelka, Kevin Davies, Henrik Pedersen
Subs Not Used: Al Habsi, Vaz Te.
Booked: Abdoulaye Diagne Faye, Kevin Davies, Henrik Pedersen, Ricardo Gardner
Goals: Gary Speed 75 pen

Referee: Clattenburg, M
Venue: Villa Park
Attendance: 27,450

Charlton 0 Liverpool 3
Since beating Wigan away 4 - 0, Liverpool have turned their season around. Criticized for not able to score, they have now scored 11 goals in 3 league matches.

Liverpool completely dominated the game and Charlton's Premiership hope looks as good as over. Since taking over as Charlton manager, Les Reed has only won one match out of six.

Charlton boss Les Reed said, "We need to broaden and widen our squad. We need some balance and have a strong bench and, hopefully January will allow us to do that. We have to turn it around. We've got to stop those performances and build on the confidence of the players. We've got to work hard and dig in. It's going to be a long job but we have to be better and show more passion. I've got to exude the belief that we can do it. If I don't, we're in trouble."

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez said, "The idea is to find the balance between attack and defence. We're now doing that but every game is different and we need to keep going. My idea is to think about the next game. Maybe in one or two months we will see if we are closer but we need to keep going."

Charlton
Thomas Myhre, Talal El Karkouri, Hermann Hreidarsson, Djimi Traore, Luke Young (Souleymane Diawara), Amady Faye (Bryan Hughes), Matt Holland, Andy Reid (Darren Ambrose), Darren Bent, D, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Dennis Rommedahl
Subs Not Used: Andersen, Marcus Bent.
Booked: Djimi Traore

Liverpool
Jose Manuel Reina, Jamie Carragher, Steve Finnan, Sami Hyypia, Xabi Alonso, Steven Gerrard, Mark Gonzalez (Javier Sanz Luis Garcia), Jermaine Pennant (Peter Crouch), John Arne Riise, Craig Bellamy, Dirk Kuyt (Fabio Aurelio)
Subs Not Used: Dudek, Agger.
Booked: Javier Sanz Luis Garcia
Goals: Xabi Alonso 3 pen, Craig Bellamy 82, Steven Gerrard 88

Referee: Webb, H
Venue: The Valley
Attendance: 27,111