Villa took the lead on 26 minutes when Stephen Cooke curled a free kick past the Bolton keeper Andy Oakes but this failed to tell the whole story of events at the County Ground as Wanderers had the majority of possession.
Ricardo Vaz-Te and Ricky Shakes had chances to open Bolton's scoring for the evening but could not get enough on their attempts to test Villa's Dutch goalkeeper Stefan Postma. Experienced trio Ivan Campo, Julio Cesar and Blessing Kaku also went close with attempts outside the woodwork.
Cesar having missed an opportunity at one end managed to stop one at the other when he cleared off the line from Shane Paul. After an hour's play O'Brien made the scoreline 1-1 with an excellent finish on the turn.
BOLTON RESERVES: Andy Oakes, Danny Livesey (Bedi Buval), Anthony Barness, Florent Laville, Julio Cesar, Ivan Campo, Blessing Kaku, Joey O'Brien, Ricardo Vaz-Te, Ricky Shakes, Khalilou Fadiga (Reda Kribib)
SUBS NOT USED: Chris Howarth, Bradley Hill, Dale Whitehead
VILLA RESERVES: Postma, Green, Foley, Cahill, Drobny, Berson, Cooke (Gardner 69), Davis, Paul (Agbonlaho 54), Nix, Aaritalo
SUBS NOT USED: Masalin, Troest, O'Halloran