VILLA 2 BOLTON 2 KEVIN Phillips said after this sensational debut that, as a child, he had never read Roy of the Rovers. A pity because everything else about the 32-year-old was straight out of Melchester's finest. It was as if the fictional Spanish winger Paco Diaz - and not Nolberto Solano - had walked out on to the pitch with Phillips. It was as if the bandana-wearing Scot, Duncan McKay, and veteran Blackie Gray were alongside him in the team line-up for the Premiership anthem and not Olof Mellberg and Martin Laursen. The likes of Thomas Sorensen, Steven Davis, Gareth Barry and Jlloyd Samuel would have been replaced by a silver-haired keeper Charlie Carter, Mervyn Wallace, Vic Guthrie and Noel Baxter. And the move that presented Phillips with his dream start would have been initiated by Jimmy Slade and Nat Gosden and not Juan Pablo Angel and Aaron Hughes. The beauty was that it took Phillips, or should that be Roy Race, just 190 seconds to open his Villa account - and right in front of the Holte End too. But calamitous defending then saw Bolton take a shock lead before Davis restored parity. It was a breathless start and you had to feel sorry for the poor soul seen sneaking into his seat at 3.09pm clutching two meat pies and a Bovril. He missed the best opening at Villa Park since Doug Ellis last reached for his cheque book and then witnessed 81 minutes of not too much at all.
 Phillips has been banging goals in all summer and he could hardly believe his luck when fellow debutant Hughes sent over a pin-point cross from the right which needed the simplest of nods to send it into the net from barely six yards. It was a simple finish to a wonderful move following a terrific raid down the right initiated by Solano and Angel. Unfortunately for Villa, their manager David O'Leary had warned of Bolton's set-play assault and it went completely unheeded. The visitors went ahead with two goals in as many minutes courtesy of a trusty long throw from Kevin Nolan and then a corner from Gary Speed. Rhadi Jaidi flicked on Nolan's throw before Kevin Davies' acrobatics put Bolton level. Ivan Campo's towering far-post header bounced into the ground and over Solano on the goal-line to put them ahead. Davis then almost immediately executed a fine side-foot volley after Phillips had hooked a superb ball over Ricardo Gardner. It was a goal that owed much to a sublime outside-of-the-foot flick over the defence from Barry. At 2-2 anything seemed possible. It was the footballing equivalent of Twenty20 cricket. But Villa didn't carve out too much else. Nicky Hunt sent Samuel sprawling with an outstretched leg to leave Villa claiming a penalty when in reality his tumble would have been more at home in the NIA Arena over a 6ft bar. Phillips carved open the Bolton defence with a searing run only for Davis to be crowded out in the penalty area, and Barry crashed a bouncing ball high over the crossbar. But Bolton could so easily have won it. They had two penalty appeals themselves waved away, while Davies' pull-back could have bounced anywhere off Hughes' boot but fell kindly to Sorensen. El-Hadji Diouf also sent a long range shot just wide and substitute Jay Jay Okocha blazed into the stands when well placed. But Villa were really let off the hook when Nolan's glancing header sneaked inside the far post but was controversially ruled out for offside. Sorensen produced a fine reflex save to deny the Bolton midfielder what looked a certain goal by punching away his firm header after Jaidi had flicked on Okocha's throw. And there was relief when Davies passed up the opportunity of the match by heading straight at the Villa keeper with the goal at his mercy late on from Okocha's pinpoint cross. It wasn't great but in the end it was good enough. Phillips and Davis really caught the eye, but there were pluses elsewhere, not least that the key trio of Mellberg, Laursen and Gavin McCann - all dogged by injuries in recent months - came through unscathed. And both Sorensen and Samuel deserved credit for bouncing back with something like their form of two seasons ago. | 
