Villa prove a cutting Carew for Wigan

Martin O’Neill celebrated his 100th match in charge of Aston Villa with a 4-0 hammering of Wigan here on Sunday to take them fifth in the Premiership table.

Goals by Gareth Barry, Gabriel Agbonlahor, and second-half substitutes John Carew and Steve Sidwell – on his Premiership debut for the club – imposed a third successive defeat on their opponents and leaves them just two points above the relegation places.

Barry gave Villa the lead in the 22nd minute converting a penalty awarded by referee Michael Jones against Wigan defender Titus Bramble for bringing down Agbonlahor.

Barry put it away nicely, though, Chris Kirkland did dive the right away.

The penalty livened up what had been a pretty numbing affair prior to that and the hosts went close to levelling the affair a couple of minutes after Barry’s spotkick.

Austrian international Paul Scharner connected with a fine cross by Daniel De Ridder only to see his header brilliantly saved by Brad Friedel.

Friedel – who was an astute signing by O’Neill when he took him away from Blackburn Rovers – also was on hand to deny Wilson Palacios from long range.

Villa, though, suffered a blow early in the second-half as Barry was forced to go off with what appeared to be a right ankle injury and was replaced by Norwegian international striker Carew.

The former Valencia and Lyon striker had an instant impact as his header down was accepted gratefully by Agbonlahor, who tucked it past Kirkland.

Agbonlahor repaid Carew’s set-up four minutes later as his cross was met by the Norwegian and he headed past Kirkland to seal the three points.

This third goal appeared to wake Wigan up and within minutes they had gone close on three occasions – once through leading scorer Amr Zaki and twice with headers from Bramble.

However, they spurned all the chances most glaringly when De Ridder was presented with an open goal after Friedel parried the ball into his path but he volleyed it wide with 18 minutes remaining.

That was the high point for Wigan as their fightback petered out and there was time for another of O’Neill’s substitutes Sidwell to hammer home a fourth and make it a miserable day for Wigan’s manager Steve Bruce and a memorable one for his Villa counterpart.