Bolton Wanderers vs Aston Villa preview - Cahill available for Bolton

Posted Saturday, December 10, 2011 by PA

Bolton centre-back Gary Cahill is available for the Barclays Premier League clash with his old club Aston Villa at the Reebok Stadium after his red card from the 3-0 defeat to Tottenham was rescinded.

Boss Owen Coyle believes Cahill will make the most of his reprieve.

Coyle said: "He was frustrated and angry after the events of last week when that opportunity was taken away from him, as well as the chance to perform against Tottenham.

"Players always like playing against their former club and Gary had a brilliant time at Aston Villa. I know he has a good feeling for the club and I'm sure he'll be determined to go out and show everyone his quality."

Fellow defender David Wheater misses out again as he serves the second game of a four-match ban for his sending off in the previous fixture, a 2-0 loss to Everton.

Midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker - another former Villa man - is a doubt due to a hamstring problem.

Villa goalkeeper Brad Guzan will make his first Premier League start of the season in place of Shay Given, who is sidelined for a month with a hamstring injury.

The United States international has had few opportunities since joining Villa three years ago because of the form of Brad Friedel and now Given.

But boss Alex McLeish said: "This is a challenge for Brad now, coming in, and a good opportunity for him to show how good a goalkeeper he is. Hopefully we can defend well enough so that they (Bolton) don't get to him too much.

"But we know that in a game, he'll have to come to the fore and we believe in him and we've got good faith in him. He's extremely unlucky to have been understudying some great goalkeepers, but now his chance has come."

McLeish admitted: "Brad did hint that possibly he was looking to go elsewhere and play first-team football but, even before Shay got injured, we told him we needed him and we valued him. We'd been talking about a new contract and I guess that will probably be talked about in the coming few weeks."

Captain Stiliyan Petrov and Stephen Ireland will be in contention to replace on-loan Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas, who has been ruled out for the season after surgery to his Achilles.

Defender Eric Lichaj (hip) is Villa's only other casualty and is poised to return to training in the new year.