Aston Villa midfielder Glenn Whelan accuses Bolton's Adam Le Fondre of fooling the referee for Neil Taylor red card

Villa are set to appeal the red card shown to defender Taylor, who is facing a three-match ban following his dismissal for a tackle on the former Wolves loanee in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

But midfielder Whelan was left unimpressed by the behaviour of Le Fondre, which he believes had a major influence on referee Jeremy Simpson’s decision.

“It was a hard tackle but their player is saying he hasn’t touched him and you can see he (Le Fondre) has jumped straight up once he has seen the red card,” said Whelan

“If he is caught him then it is red but if he hasn’t, then we’ll be looking at it.

“If you are injured, you are injured. But I think staying down and then jumping up once the red card is given, it is not what you want to see.

“Obviously from Bolton’s perspective they want to play against ten men. He (Le Fondre) has done what he thought was best for his team.”

Taylor, the only recognised left-back in Steve Bruce’s squad, will miss derby games against Wolves and Blues along with a home game against Fulham unless Villa’s appeal is successful.

His dismissal marred another good afternoon for Villa, who collected a fourth consecutive league win courtesy of Jonathan Kodjia’s first goal of the season and head into the international break seventh in the table.

“We were just delighted to get the result we needed on Saturday, we are in good form at the minute,” said Whelan.

“It has taken us a while to get together because of new players coming in but we are starting to show what we are all about. It is early in the season and we need to keep that up.

“We are not worried about the league table at the minute. It is only 11 games in. To be looking at the table now? I don’t think so. We will be looking at it with ten or 11 games to go.”