Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neill is demanding a greater level of consistency from striker John Carew after he tormented Bolton in his side's 5-1 win at Villa Park.

The Norwegian international set up three goals and scored one himself and was too much of a handful for Bolton's former Villa pair of Zat Knight and Garry Cahill.

The pair could not contain the power or aerial threat of the former Lyon striker.

But O'Neill wants to see that standard achieved on a more regular basis from a player who has been Villa's top scorer for the past two seasons.

O'Neill said: "John played very well today. You do get performances like that from him when he is absolutely brilliant.

"But then in other matches he is not as strong. We are looking for that consistency from him. Maybe not topping that performance but maybe getting close to it.

"John accepts that himself but today he was a real handful and Bolton found it hard to contain him."

O'Neill admitted he had been concerned about his side's recent heavy schedule ahead of the game, particularly after losing in the dying seconds to West Ham in midweek.

But Villa never looked back once Ashley Young had given them an early lead and Gabriel Agbonlahor, James Milner and Carlos Cuellar were also on target in addition to Carew.

O'Neill said: "I was concerned beforehand because we were really down after the West Ham match on Wednesday.

"We had played four away games in quick succession and I was worried about the energy levels today, particularly for the second half.

"But the players started brightly, maintained that, the crowd were enthused by the performance and stayed with us throughout.

"To be fair we have been threatening a goal performance like that for some time."

Unsurprisingly, Bolton boss Gary Megson was unhappy with his team's showing and they have now leaked 15 goals in their last four games

All the visiting fans had to cheer was a goal just before half-time from substitute Johan Elmander.

Megson said: "I feel sorry for our goalkeeper (Jussi Jaaskelainen) because he played well and did not deserve to get beaten five times.

"Carew was strong and lively but every one of their players looked close to their best.

"Of our outfield players, none got close to what I would expect from them.

"If we can't sort it out with what we have already got, then we will need to change things a bit.

"We had talked before the game about Villa starting at a high tempo and scoring goals at the start of games and just after half-time on a regular basis.

"We said we needed to match them but it didn't happen and the manner of the third goal summed it up for us.

"Carew rolled Knight too easily and beat Cahill too easily. At 3-1 it left us with a mountain to climb."