Ricketts spot on for Bolton

Bolton 1 Aston Villa 0

Vassell, who was a member of England’s World Cup squad on duty in Japan during the summer, sustained a hamstring injury in the dying stages of the first-half of his side’s 1-0 defeat against Bolton at the Reebok Stadium.

England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson will today name his squad for the Villa Park friendly, with the 22-year-old Vassell seemingly unlikely to be included, according to Taylor.

Villa crashed to their third defeat in four matches, with the game decided by a 56th-minute Michael Ricketts penalty after Peter Enckelman had brought down Henrik Pedersen.

Villa had legitimate claims for an equaliser when Juan Pablo Angel had a seemingly good goal disallowed soon after he was ruled offside, much to the disgust of Taylor who then criticised assistant referees.

‘‘I haven’t seen a replay so I am only talking about what I saw, but then it really doesn’t matter what I saw, it’s about what the assistant referee sees,’’ added Taylor. ‘‘I thought Juan Pablo looked onside but the assistant referee saw differently because he is looking straight across and only a replay will tell you if he is right. We attended meetings prior to the start of the season where it was made very clear to all of us that, in an offside situation, if there was any doubt whatsoever, then the attacker would be given the benefit. To be an offside position, air had to be seen between the defender and the attacker.’’

When informed the replay did show Angel was level, Taylor then added: ‘‘I think in our country we’ve some good referees, but I am not so certain we’ve all that many assistant referees. They are letting their colleagues down with some of their decision-making, and what could Mr Dunn do about that? The flag goes up and the goal is disallowed. So he has to take his colleague’s judgement. I think the assistant referees are more of a problem than referees.’’ The victory means Bolton are off the foot of the table after picking up their first points of the season, much to the relief of boss Sam Allardyce.

‘‘I always think when you start a game and you are the team at the bottom of the division without a point on the board, then there is a little bit of extra pressure to that which you are already putting on yourselves,’’ said Allardyce.

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, N’Gotty, Bergsson, Whitlow, Charlton (Gardner 32), Djorkaeff, Warhurst (Barness 39), Frandsen, Nolan, Ricketts, Pedersen.

ASTON VILLA: Enckelman, Delaney, Mellberg, Staunton, Wright (Samuel 64), Angel, Hendrie, Kinsella, Barry, Vassell (De la Cruz 45), Crouch (Allback 64).

Referee: S Dunn (Avon).