Aston Villa v Bolton: Live text, some banter and match commentary

42': With half time very slowly approaching I bid farewell. My internet is about to go and all I hope for is we keep the score at 2-1 for 2 more minutes.

41': Actually, I'm not convinced it was Laursen that got the last touch or in fact that he got one. Still, it goes down to him in my book.

40': The cross comes in and typical Laursen, he puts his head where boots go and he scores. Great goal.

39':

2-1 Martin Laursen.

Just after writing what I was writing and we go ahead. Come on!

38':

Lads, I'm about to lose internet however, if the second half goes anything like this half, it's not such a bad thing. The game isn't going as well as it could be.

36': The game has gone quiet again. Sorry.

33': $tevie G gets another, 2-2 at Anfield.

31': Lovely chipped ball through by Ashley Young to Sidwell - knocked out for another corner.

28':

I don't know if Barry has a side bet with one of the other players about who could take thw worst free kick, but if he has, he might win with that effort. No idea what happened.

28': Gabby beats his man down the right only to be brought down. Free kick to be taken by Barry.

27': $tevie G has scored for Liverppool, 2-1 now to Hull.

26': Long ball from Luke Young I think, literally bounced of Gabby's head right in front of him and he volleyed in. Not the prettiest of goals, but a goal nontheless! 1-1 and hopefully the turning point.

25': 1-1 Gabby.

24': Martin O'Neill is off the bench. Hopefully this will mean a little more pressure.

23': Bloody hell. 2-0 to Hull. We really need to pick ourselves up.

22': Bolton just hit the cross bar with a header. The surprising thing for me was how good the corner was and it was taken by Smiler.

21': Milner has now moved over to the left and Young is on the right. Guess what side the attacks will now be going down?

18': Poor defending all  round and a soft goal. Still, this is probably what we need; a kick up the backside.

17': 1-0 to Bolton.

15': Saying that, if Hull win and we lose - they go ahead of us.

14': Hull have just gone up 1-0 at Liverpool. If you didn't know earlier, I bet on a draw there along with Everton winning. Could be my lucky day!

12': While I'm positive spirits today the football hasn't started off as I would have lived and Martin O'Neill is actually quite relaxed on the bench. We need some impetus and we need to try and find what we played with against Everton. I hope we're not coming down of the high!

11': Basically, not the best opening ten minutes of a match you'll see this season, but we are looking to break - mostly down the left for now but I expect that to alternate.

7': The Holte End has also woken up a little.

7': Milner has a shot from the edge of the box - right on the corner of the box that is, and it goes wide. It never really troubles anyone but the ball boy. But we are pushing forward and creating chances.

3': A draw, but no means the worst result today against a team playing well away from home, isn't going to be good enough. Three points gets us into the top four and all games will be equal. Come on!

3': It's a bit quiet at Villa Park. I think we need a little something to get teh players going, but I'm a big fan of the 12th man. I think they're starting to wake up.

1': Right - we're off!

Before Kick Off: I've just had the worst bit of news too. I'm losing internet access for 2 hours at about the time the second half kicks off, so if someone else, who does a blog wants to also write a match commentary - please do!!

Before Kick Off: 20 to go ..

Before Kick Off: Arsenal draw with Boro. We win today we go fourth. Come on ..

Before Kick Off:

Some team news:

Friedel, L Young, Davies, Laursen, Cuellar, Sidwell, Barry, Petrov, Milner, A Young, Agbonlahor. Subs: Guzan, Knight, Harewood, Reo-Coker, Gardner, Shorey, Delfouneso.

Looks like 4-3-3!

Before Kick Off:

My bets for the day are Boro to win and us to win which gives me a pretty good return because Boro are good odds to win at home, but I've also picked a draw at Anfield and Everton to win at Manchester City.

I don't expect that second one to come in but it's called betting for a reason and the odds of that happening are quite long, so if it does come in, I'll be having a good Saturday night.

Before Kick Off: Middlesbrough have come into this game more and more. This could turn out very interesting today.

Before Kick Off: 1-1 Middlesbrough v Arsenal. This is good news!

Before Kick Off: 1-0 to Arsenal at the moment and they'll probably win by a few if they keep up with what they're doing.

Before Kick Off:

For those that don't know, at kick off, this page auto-redirects to the match centre, so it's mostly here just for placement and there might not be a lot posted between now and kick off.

Before Kick Off: Just watching the Middlesbrough game and while I'm not sure, I'd say there were quite a few thousand empty seats. Not a good disaply when Arsenal come to town.

Before Kick Off:

Also, some interesting comments from Barry this week. He's going to stay at Aston Villa if the club qualify for the Champions League.

What he didn't say was that we had to actually qualify, so it's not just about finsihing in the top four, but we've got to get into the group stages and that we've then got to pay him £100k a week on a five year contract. If he doesn't get teh new contract, he won't stay - it's all about the benjamins.

Before Kick Off: I'm a big fan of Martin O'Neill so I'm not going to comment on this, but according to Martin O'Neill, Ashley Young is as good as Messi and Ronaldo. Click here to read what he's said.

Before Kick Off:

Morning all and welcome to Saturday. Middlesbrough meet Arsenal in a few mintues so I'm starting this post early as I've had a cheeky bet on Middlesbrough and rekcon it's going to be a good day for us.

We'll have a look at some of the papers this morning between now and 3pm and if anyone has any interesting links, post them below.

My prediction; three points for Villa today.