SOME of the fears the Villa Park faithful had about Alex McLeish turning Villa into Birmingham were clearly misplaced.

Villa will not be emulating their fierce rivals by lifting the Carling Cup at Wembley this season.

The concerns weren’t the only things misplaced as pass after pass went astray and with them probably the club’s best chance of finally winning a trophy.

As for the Villa fans’ worries about inheriting Blues’ struggles for scoring goals, well, let’s just say McLeish’s men scarcely deserved their ‘nil’ last night.

While Villa named a strong first XI with just three changes from the draw with Newcastle, Bolton started with nine different faces from the defeat to Norwich.

Yet it was the claret and blues who were the most disjointed with the Trotters threatening early on through Gael Kakuta and Darren Pratley.

A brave block from Stephen Warnock, passed fit after a hip injury, thwarted Kakuta from close range before Shay Given pounced on Pratley’s skidding shot from distance.

The visitors, encouraged by a hardy 300-strong following, boasted the first half’s best chance when David Wheater’s towering header was a whisker wide on 35 minutes.

If the Villa Park faithful were crying out for a performance of attacking intent, they were sadly disappointed as Villa’s forward forays were a rarity.

Gabby Agbonlahor was an isolated figure up front, with his only first-half service coming from a Bannan cross, which the Brummie striker nodded wide from near the penalty spot.

The chance owed much to the closing down of Marc Albrighton to win the ball and also included a crunching tackle from Stephen Ireland on former Villa defender Gary Cahill.

It took Villa until first-half stoppage time to truly get behind the Bolton backline with a trademark sliderule pass from Bannan picking out the bursting run of Warnock.