*Aston Villa on the rise as Ashley Young exploits Wigan’s penalty gift*

Aston Villa’s revival continued with an undistinguished but hard-earned win at Wigan, where the locals are becoming restless at Roberto Martínez’s apparent inability to emulate Gérard Houllier and escape the bottom three.

All the visitors had to do was raise their game slightly in the second half and Wigan were blown away, even without Darren Bent getting on the scoresheet. Goals from Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young hoisted Villa to the comfort of mid-table, as sparsely populated terraces accused the Wigan manager of not knowing what he was doing.

“It was a bit like a cup tie, on a difficult pitch,” Houllier said. “Even at 2-1 down we did not panic. All the players already know Darren and he has clearly given us a lift. When he does not score it is good if the others can score, and they did.”

Wigan almost scored first, when Franco di Santo did well to reach an Emerson Boyce cross and saw his header land on top of the net, though before long the game was beginning to follow a familiar pattern. Only Ali al-Habsi prevented a rout at Arsenal at the weekend and the Wigan goalkeeper had to make a first save on six minutes, after his defenders unaccountably failed to pick up Bent from a free-kick on the halfway line. Saves from Stewart Downing and Bent again followed in quick succession, though Brad Friedel was required to produce a smart one at the other end to keep out a Hugo Rodallega effort.

Jean Makoun, a £5m capture from Lyon, lasted just 21 minutes of his English debut before going into the book for a foul on Rodallega, after the midfielder set up one of Villa’s best attacks. With his help Young sent Bent clear on goal again, only for the striker’s first touch to be too heavy.

This is not the glamorous end of English football, as “rested” Wigan midfielder Mohamed Diamé has just pointed out, and as the interval neared, Villa ran out of ideas as if leaden, pedestrian play was something you could catch from uninspiring surroundings. Wigan ended up making the clearest chance of the first half when clever work by James McCarthy presented Rodallega with a chance he put over the bar.

Villa began the second half in a manner that suggested Houllier had asked them to speed things up. Young and Agbonlahor both set off up the pitch at a rate of knots on their first attack, and though the former’s shot brought a save from Al-Habsi the latter scored his first goal of the season from the resultant corner. Carlos Cuéllar’s header brought one more fine reaction save, but with the goalkeeper on the floor and the ball in the air it was a simple matter for Agbonlahor to nod home from a yard or so out.

Wigan proceeded to fall to pieces, as they seem to do so often, and had no route back once Hendry Thomas had conceded a ludicrous penalty on the hour. Lazily attempting to play the ball through Young, the midfielder left Jon Moss with an easy decision and left Young to score from the spot. Steve Gohouri was booked for an even worse trip on Agbonlahor two minutes later, mercifully for his team outside the area.

The impressive McCarthy pulled a goal back, with the aid of a deflection off James Collins, to give his side some hope, and for the last 10 minutes Wigan actually made a game of it. Villa held out, just, leaving their opponents to rue their gift of the penalty winner. “It’s difficult to find positives but once we went two-nil down the reaction was fantastic,” Martínez said, making a bid for optimist of the season. “We have been here before, we can still achieve our aim in the last third of the season, just like the teams at the top.”