Parkinson salutes scorer Le Fondre after Bolton beat Villa
Posted Sunday, March 18, 2018 by PA
Phil Parkinson saluted match winner Adam Le Fondre after Bolton’s 1-0 Sky Bet Championship win increased their survival chances at the expense of Aston Villa’s automatic promotion aspirations.
Le Fondre’s fourth goal of the campaign after 19 minutes lifted Wanderers six points clear of the bottom three and extended their unbeaten run to three matches.
In contrast, Villa are seven points off second-placed Cardiff who also have a game in hand.
“Look at the money Villa have spent on strikers and Alfie was the best striker on the pitch,” said Trotters boss Parkinson. “That’s enormous credit to him.
“We lost Gary Madine (sold to Cardiff) and Alfie has taken on the mantle of number nine. He gives us different qualities but he looks so sharp and so fresh.
“He got his goal but his all round performance was excellent. But it was difficult to pick out individuals.
“We asked them for an almighty effort going into the international break and we got that in difficult conditions.
“From one to 11 plus the two substitutes who came on. Now going into the international break we can have a breather.
“But we have got to come back in with a real focus with an eight game season left.
“We have been speaking about this mini league and we want to finish on the top of it.”
Villa boss Steve Bruce admitted it had been a “horrible” five days for the club but claimed he had not given up on automatic promotion.
“We have lost two in five days and other teams are capable of doing that,” said Bruce. “But we have lost more in five days than we had in three months.
“There are still eight games to go though and all to play for. But we have given the initiative to the others at the wrong time.
“In my experience, there are still a few twists and turns. April is huge and that will be the defining month but we probably need to win six of the last eight games
“We have had a wonderful opportunity with QPR and Bolton with no disrespect to them both. And we haven’t taken anything from it.
“In that respect we deserve to be where we are. When conditions like that it becomes a real leveller,” he said of the snow that covered the pitch.
“Bolton put it forward and played very simply. It ended up a frustrating night and we are all hugely disappointed.
“It was an awful night and it was difficult to play any real football and to be fair to Bolton they adapted to conditions more than we did.
“It wasn’t a night for our wide players because they couldn’t run with the ball because of the snow.”
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