JUST when it seemed as though Martin O’Neill’s Aston Villa revolution might be about to slip into stagnation, along came hapless, disorganised Bolton Wanderers. Four goals later Villa were rejuvenated, while Bolton, buoyed only by the ineptness of those around them, find their Premier League status becoming more tenuous with each passing week. After a season where setback has piled upon setback, the glory days of Sam Allardyce now seem as sepia-tinted as those of Nat Lofthouse.

“Nobody’s given up,” claimed visiting manager Gary Megson. “We just didn’t do enough today, but the only positive is that teams around us haven’t taken advantage. But next Saturday’s game against West Ham is as close to must-win as you can get.”

As the teams trooped off, Villa heads high, Bolton’s bowed low, the Holte End eulogised Villa’s imperious captain Gareth Barry and rightly so, for in addition to strutting across midfield like the creative colossus he so often is, he had scored two and created another two.

How Villa needed this fillip. Undermined by a squad so thin a supermodel might balk, in the space of three games without a goal and six without a victory, Aston Villa had stumbled from likely Uefa Cup qualifiers to Intertoto representatives. “We’d hit the buffers and our confidence ebbed away,” admitted O’Neill. “But today our confidence came back. This was a pressure game for us and we handled it. Gareth Barry was magnificent, but a number of things pleased me today.”

Bolton, naturally, would swap the earth for such pelf. They headed back up the M6 without a victory since February 2 and with only seeming bleakness ahead.

Initially, the visitors exhibited purpose, but nine minutes in Villa attacked and, assisted by Bolton’s criminal culpability, scored. Ashley Young ambled down the left and crossed to the back post, where Barry’s header squirmed through a far-from-diligent Ali Al Habsi.

Yet the first half did not pass without Bolton scavenging opportunities: Davies sliced a cross onto Scott Carson’s bar; Matthew Taylor was unfortunate to see a 30-yard free kick deflected wide and had Heidar Helguson exhibited a modicum of composure he would have snuck a 44th-minute equaliser rather than blasting into the Holte End gods from 12 yards.

Yet, Villa always looked more likely. Exploiting Bolton’s lack of width and their midfielders’ unwillingness to track back, Gabriel Agbonlahor rampaged down the right and Young down the left. Only variable final balls, Andy O’Brien and Gary Cahill’s robust defending and the post, when Martin Laursen drove in from a tight angle, prevented a scoring jamboree.

Come half-time, Wanderers were critical but not terminal. In fact, Bolton briefly forced the second half pace as Carson made a hash of successive corners. Once again, Bolton’s promising opening to a half ended in misery and climaxed not with the equaliser they perhaps warranted, but with Villa’s clinching second. Like their first, its provenance was the left wing. This time, Barry sauntered into space and crossed low for the spring-heeled Agbonlahor to nip ahead of Taylor and tuck home his first goal of 2008.

Now, Bolton looked beaten. Al Habsi saved elegantly from Nigel Reo-Coker’s drive but the Omani’s good work merely postponed the inevitable. Moments later, Bolton struggled to clear a Barry corner. When the ball finally fell his way on the edge of the penalty area, Barry fired number three, aided by a mighty Joey O’Brien deflection.

There was still time for a fourth. Danny Guthrie felled Reo-Coker on the right. Barry - who else? - slung over the free kick and, as Cahill’s weary legs let him down, substitute Marlon Harewood headed neatly past Al Habsi.

Star man: Gareth Barry (Aston Villa)

Player ratings: Aston Villa: Carson 5, Mellberg 6, Knight 6, Laursen 6, Bouma 6, Reo- Coker 6, Petrov 6 (Routledge 86min), Barry 8, Young 7 (Berger 84min), Carew 6 (Harewood 77min), Agbonlahor 6

Bolton: Al-Habsi 5, Steinsson 4, Cahill 6, A O’Brien 6, J O’Brien 5 (Cohen 84min), Taylor 6, Guthrie 5, McCann 6, Davies 5, Helguson 4, Diouf 6

Scorers: Aston Villa: Barry 9, 60, Agbonlahor 56, Harewood 85

Yellow cards: Aston Villa: Carew, Reo-Coker Bolton: Guthrie

Referee: M Atkinson Attendance: 37,773