PHIL Parkinson saluted goal-scorer Adam Le Fondre as Wanderers took another giant step towards Championship safety in the snow against Aston Villa.

The Whites sprung one of the shocks of the season so far, denting Villa’s chase for automatic promotion thanks to Le Fondre’s 19th minute strike.

The result restored a six-point gap on the bottom three, with eight games remaining, and left Parkinson purring over the performance of his leading man.

“The best thing I can say about Alfie is that Villa have spent millions and millions on strikers and he was the best one on the park by a mile tonight,” he said.

Wanderers were unfancied against a Villa side who had won 10 away games this season and had scored in all but one of their last 20 meetings with Bolton.

But from the off the Whites’ attitude was good and they deserved to take the lead when Sammy Ameobi’s corner was flicked on by Darren Pratley and finished by Le Fondre.

The 31-year-old could have helped himself to a second after the break, pulling a shot wide from the edge of the box, but the defensive effort to preserve the clean sheet was encouraging.

Jon Flanagan made one incredible clearance off the line and Ben Alnwick pulled off a wonder save in the last minute to deny James Bree.

“I’m pleased with the win and the performance,” Parkinson said. “Villa are riding high and the spotlight was on us in terms of the TV cameras but we handled it really well in difficult conditions.

“It’s hard to single out individuals because it was such a good team performance.

“In terms of everyone making a contribution, it was hard to fault any player.”

Parkinson also gave credit to the ground-staff for keeping the pitch playable in blizzard-like conditions.

“It probably looked worse in the stands than it was down at pitch level because the ball was still moving quickly,” the manager said.

“Me and Steve (Parkin) were worried at one point that the game was going to get called off at one point if the snow had come down much heavier.

“With us being 1-0 up we obviously didn’t want that to happen.

“But the groundstaff did very well at half time – they really deserve credit. They got on the pitch and cleared everything they could.

“We adapted well to the conditions and passed the ball really well at times.”