O'Leary standing by Angel

Aston Villa manager David O’Leary was glowing in his praise for record signing Juan Pablo Angel – even though his failure to convert a late penalty cost his side two points against Bolton.

Angel grabbed a spectacular equaliser for the home side to cancel out Kevin Nolan’s opener less than a minute into the second period.

The Colombian international then blotted his copybook by seeing his spot-kick - harshly awarded after a tangle with Ivan Campo – saved by Trotters keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.

That followed on from his hat-trick of glaring misses in the single goal setback at Chelsea the previous weekend.

But O’Leary had nothing but plaudits for the former River Plate player, who was the shining light in a below-par performance from Villa and now has seven goals to his name this season.

O’Leary said: “He missed a penalty – and I was surprised when it was given - but I thought Juan was great for us.

“There is a lot of disappointment all-round in the way we played as a team. We can play a lot better but his work-rate and effort was second to none.

“It’s a pity he didn’t score the penalty because it would have been well deserved. He was our best player by a mile. It was a wonderful goal.”

Bolton were incensed by the penalty award which was branded “a disgrace” by striker Kevin Davies, who turned in another excellent performance.

Davies said: “The penalty was a disgrace. Angel was backing in and Ivan was just standing up. It was a disgrace but the keeper made a great save for us.

“I thought the referee (Rob Styles) was waiting to give the decision. But we showed a lot of character to come out of it with a draw.”

Bolton manager Sam Allardyce is calling for referee supremos Philip Don and Keith Hackett to allow officials to use “common-sense” after five more of his players – Emerson Thome, Jay Jay Okocha, Campo, Per Frandsen and Riccardo Gardner – were booked.

Although upset with the penalty award, the brunt of his anger was directed at Don and Hackett for putting referees under pressure to produce yellow and red cards without being able to use any discretion.

He said: “I’m disgusted by the number of cards being shown generally in every single game and all you are going to is stop the best players from playing.

“People are spending £25 to £30 to watch a game and they are not going to see the stars. It certainly doesn’t happen in Europe so they can’t hide in this country behind FIFA because the same sort of thing doesn’t happen everywhere else.

“Refs should be allowed to show common-sense and not be put under pressure and go into games thinking ’I must book this player because if I don’t I may have my marks deducted.’

“The guide-lines come from whoever is running the referees’ department, Philip Don and Keith Hackett. They have the responsibility to oversee what is happening and they should listen to everyone else in football. They should take notice but I don’t think they are.”