Talking Tayls with Ian Taylor

Villa favourite Ian Taylor has an alternative view of Zat Knight as the defender prepares to return to his old club with Bolton.

Suddenly, Bolton on Saturday has become one of Villa's biggest games of the season. A draw at West Ham last night would have been satisfactory, little more, after picking up points at Wolves and Everton.

But the Hammers' last-gasp goal has piled the pressure on Villa to deliver a win over the Trotters at Villa Park this weekend – or risk being left behind in the race for the Champions League.

A win at Upton Park could have put them fourth which would have been a huge psychological lift for everyone in the dressing room. Instead, they find themselves still in seventh having blown their game in hand against a side stuck in a relegation battle.

It's all well and good beating the Chelseas and Liverpools but, unless Villa find some consistency, they're going to finish with the also-rans again.

They don't look enough of a goal threat at the moment – and both the strikers and midfielders need to start chipping in with more goals. I think everyone hoped the win over Chelsea – and the free-flowing and fearless football which secured it – was the start of something special.

But, disappointingly, none of the four performances which have followed have come even close. Now they're back at Villa Park this weekend – and they really need to dig out a win, by hook or by crook. Bolton are a team you would expect us to beat but that hasn't counted for much of late.

They certainly won't make life easy with their physical approach but the pace of Gabby Agbonlahor and Ashley Young caused them huge problems at Villa Park last season. I wouldn't expect them to play such a high line this time after they were caught out in the 4-2 win last season.

The claret and blues will also have to find a way past two former Villans with a point to prove. Zat Knight will know all about John Carew's and Agbonlahor's games, but whether he is able to stop them is another matter.

He's not had the best of starts to life at Bolton – every other week he seems to be scoring an own goal or be at fault for some gaffe. But you can bet he'll be up for this one. Zat never really won over the supporters at Villa, he was always seen as an accident waiting to happen. But I don't think he ever got a fair crack of the whip.

There were a number of occasions last season when he was dropped when others around him had played worse.

In the end, he wanted to play regular first-team football – something I respect in any player – and the move suited both parties. There was a stage in the summer I was starting to wonder whether selling Zat was a smart idea – Curtis Davies was injured and the only senior centre-back we had at the club was Carlos Cuellar.

But, in James Collins and Richard Dunne, I think we've landed two real gems. The defence looks far stronger this year for their arrivals.

Then there's Gary Cahill. Martin O'Neill has come in for plenty of flack for allowing him to go but I've got sympathy for the Villa boss. While Gary clearly had potential, I don't think too many people expected him to be figuring for England. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

The chances are he wouldn't have made the strides he has at Bolton if he had stayed at Villa because of the competition there. Maybe Martin would do things differently if he had the chance again but these are the decisions you have to make in football.

I'm sure for every manager in the game you could find a player discarded by them who has gone to be a success somewhere else. That's football.

Another game I'll be keeping a close eye on this weekend is the FA Cup first round clash between Walsall and Stourbridge. It's what the FA Cup is all about and, having started off in non-league myself, I know how desperate the Stourbridge lads will be to make a name for themselves.

I remember when I was playing for Moor Green it being the same. I was a forklift truck driver – before that I had even been on the dole for a while. My big break in football did not come until I was 24, it was after playing in a local cup final at the Hawthorns.

Saturday will be like a cup final for the Glassboys players and I'm sure there will be a few of them thinking a good display against the Saddlers might just get them noticed. There's sure to be plenty of scouts there and it happened for a couple of the lads at Chasetown the season they did so well in the competition.

I've been impressed with the resilience of Wolves in recent weeks – and the signs are certainly there they have enough to stay up. Draws against Everton, Villa and Stoke are all good points – although they do constitute the same as a win and two defeats.

What they need is a win to take the pressure off – a result that will push them up the table. But, unfortunately for Mick McCarthy's men, I fear it will get worse before it gets better. Their next two games are against Arsenal and Chelsea – arguably the two form teams in the league – and another draw from even one of those two games would represent a satisfactory return.

The birth of Wayne Rooney's son Kai has reignited the old debate about paternity leave for footballers and I'm most certainly in the 'for' camp.

Rooney ended up taking barely 24 hours off after coming on as a second-half sub against CSKA Moscow on Tuesday. But if he wanted what he is entitled to do, I don't think they should be made a scapegoat. Far from it.

Being a footballer is a job. Of course, it's a wonderfully-privileged job but it's a job all the same. Sometimes people forget footballers have private lives too and, as a father myself, exceptions have to be made when children are involved.