Barry Looking For Points On The Road

Gareth Barry is looking for some maximum points on our travels explaining on the official site, 'We've done OK at home so far this season and that is important. But we need to start winning games away from home as well. Our god run at the end of last season saw us winning at Manchester City, Middlesbrough and Blackburn and really pulled us up the table.'

'We're a lot harder to beat away from home now and I think we have the players to win games on the road. We've got a lot of pace in the side and overall we've been defending quite well. The start to the season has been decent and we're tucked in there in mid-table. But to really move up the table we need a few away wins and we're confident we can get them.'

The Villa boss added that Villa have only lost one on the road since being beaten by Reading last February. After losing to Manchester United at home Martin O'Neill knows the importance of some points against Bolton: 'When you falter at home, in terms of result, then you've got to try and make that ground up again. If you've got designs on getting to a decent position in the League, then you've got to win a certain number of away games. Of our three away games so far this season, I would say we could have won two of them. We had a number of chances to have won at Newcastle and we definitely could have won at Tottenham.'

Adding that Villa are going to the Reebok Stadium with confidence but admits with the arrival of Gary Megson (LOL) to Bolton, they will not take anything for granted due to the 'new manager syndrome'

'Bolton will be up for the game, you can be sure of that. Gary Megson has had a short period of time to work with the players, but he'll try to have an impact in the dressing room.'

'They're bottom of the table, but they have some quality there. Going forward they have Anelka, Diouf and Davies, who have all proved themselves. So the game will be very hard for us and it would have been very hard for us regardless of who was in charge. We don't quite know what we'll be up against.'

What worries me is they've only won one league game this season, you know what Villa are like, if there is a poor record to be ended, we always oblige! Hopefully this time will prove differently.

In team news, it looks like Big John Carew will not be fit in time. O’Neill said “I don’t know whether tomorrow will come too early for him, but we’re certainly looking at having him fit for Derby and any matches around that time. We could do with his presence.”

Marlon Harewood might have pushed his credentials for a start after scoring a hattrick in the reserves, with Luke Moore firing blanks his place could be under threat.

GOT to be the start of a winning run, we should be able to get 12 points out of the upcoming four games. Bolton, Derby, Blues and Boro are all beatable and are must wins if we want to be pushing the top half of the table come the Christmas fixtures.

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.

Join the Vital Fantasy Football League - its Free!