Villa winger Ashley Young admits the team will be glad to be back home following their punishing away-day schedule.

A penalty-shoot out victory over Sunderland in the Carling Cup was Villa’s only win from a gruelling run of four away games in 10 days – drawing with Wolves and Everton before slipping to an agonising injury-time defeat at West Ham on Wednesday.

Three weeks on from their stunning success over Chelsea, Martin O’Neill’s men return home to Villa Park to host Bolton tomorrow, with Young hoping being back in front of the claret and blue faithful can herald a turnaround in results.

He said: “It’s always nice to be playing back at home. We’ve had a tough run of fixtures away so it will be good to get back there. We never want to lose there, or on the road.

“Everybody here is still full of confidence and when you have a defeat so late on in a game, as we did at West Ham, you want to bounce back from it and that’s what we’re looking to do tomorrow.”

“Bolton are going to come and make it tough. We’ve got to concentrate and start on the front foot, then hopefully come the end of the game we’ll get three points.”

Young missed a penalty in the 2-1 defeat at West Ham on Wednesday night, with O’Neill again leaping to the defence of the winger despite his third miss in the space of a year.

The wide man responded with a stunning 25-yard goal just minutes after his spot kick was saved by goalkeeper Rob Green and the manager believes the strike will give the player confidence.

He said: “It was a really great goal, a fantastic goal and that will give him a big boost. I’ve seen him do it so often, almost on a daily basis so I always think there’s a fair chance when he shoots.

“I think he’s a really top class player. He tried to beat people, to entertain and I think he’s learning to cope with the difficulties that being a really good player in the Premier League entails.

“This isn’t a case of me standing up for him.”