Bolton have kept their chances of avoiding relegation well and truly alive courtesy of a 2-1 win against Aston Villa at Villa Park tonight.
The Trotters conceded just after the hour-mark before scoring twice in two minutes to move to 33 points, one behind 17th-placed Wigan Athletic, but Owen Coyle's men have a game in hand on their rivals.
Stephen Warnock hit the crossbar for Villa in the 37th minute from Alan Hutton's cutback made up for that miss in the 61st minute when emphatically slid home Charles N'Zogbia's pass after the Frenchman made a devilish run down the right.
That had the home fans jumping as Villa had won just once in their last 12 matches but the joy was shortlived when Carlos Cuellar mad a clumsy challenge on Mark Davies two minutes later with referee Chris Foy pointing to the spot. Martin Petrov stepped up and converted with a well-taken effort which Shay Given was unable to get to, making it 1-1.
To Villa's disbelief, Bolton then went in front a minute later when David Ngog fired home after Chris Eagles jinked his way through the defence before setting the former Liverpool striker up from close range.
The three points was enormous for Bolton who can now move out of the bottom trio of clubs with a win against Sunderland on the weekend as Villa find themselves just three points above the drop zone after feeling relatively safe at one point about two months ago.
Aston Villa: 1 (Stephen Warnock 61') Bolton: 2 (Martin Petrov (p) 62', David Ngog 63')
Villa Park, Birmingham - 32,263
Yellow cards:AV - Eric Lichaj 90+1' BOL - Samuel Ricketts 35', Tim Ream 74'
