BOLTON boss Sam Allardyce blamed missed chances for the reason why Wanderers failed to take all three points against Aston Villa.

Bolton's defence had gone more than 11 hours without being breached before Villa sub Juan Pablo Angel grabbed his first goal of the campaign just two minutes from time.

El-Hadji Diouf thought he had won it for Bolton with a well-taken goal with eight minutes left following good work by sub Ricardo Vaz Te. And the Portuguese teenager could have been the hero of the hour but his last minute effort was well saved by Villa keeper Thomas Sorensen.

Bolton never reached the heights of last week's excellent victory against Arsenal but still dominated possession and created enough chances to win the game.

Striker Kevin Davies went close twice and Gary Speed hit a post in the first 45 minutes while Diouf had a goal-bound effort cleared off the line before he eventually found the back of the net.

Allardyce said: "We didn't play at our very best but we still did enough to create opportunities to beat a side that have had a mini turnaround in their Premiership form.

Hopeful

-"I was a little bit worried at half-time that we couldn't seem to convert any chances to get our noses in front and then we started the second half a little brighter pressed them even more and more, and decided to change the point of attack which in the end worked for the goal.

"But then we just switched off on a hopeful ball just punted into our box. It's unlike us, the way we are at the minute, to have conceded that way, but we have to accept that somewhere along the line someone is going to score against us.

"The point of blame lies with chances missed rather than the boys that may have slipped up for just a second to allow Villa to score. One goal has been enough in the past but we need to convert those chances into more and more goals to alleviate the pressure so this type of thing does not cost us any points.

"That's probably the area I am looking at the most, a clinical finish wasn't there and when it was you saw it with Dioufy's finish and that was probably the hardest chance we've scored with today. Our goals total is not what it should be with the way we are playing and the amount of chances we are creating but we'll keep working at it."

Goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen said: "When we scored I just thought we had to stay solid now and defend well but I think on a couple of occasions we've been a little bit lucky and not conceded a late goal but the luck was not on our side, so we are disappointed but that's football.

"Every game is massive for us, our main focus is the Premier League but we have to make sure we get to the League Cup final because we want to win some things as well. But we have to keep doing the right things."

Defender Tal Ben Haim said: "We dropped two expensive points but we have a very important game on Wednesday against Seville."

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen 6, O'Brien 7, N'Gotty 6, Ben Haim 7, Gardner 7, Faye 7, Speed 7, Stelios 6 (Vaz Te 79) , Nolan 7, Davies 6 (Okocha, 66 5), Diouf 7. Subs: Walker, Jaidi, Nakata.

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