*New Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce began his reign with a point as the local derby against Wolves ended in a draw.*

But Villa Park’s fifth home league draw in six games this season could quite easily have ended badly for Bruce.

Villa took the lead through Jonathan Kodjia’s 15th-minute penalty, only for Wolves to level with a spot-kick of their own from Helder Costa.

And Wolves had enough second-half chances to have won comfortably.

On a day when Bruce’s side began the game in the Championship’s bottom three thanks to the day’s earlier results, they ended it in 20th - nine points behind his old club Birmingham City, who occupy the last of the four play-off places.

And the new Villa boss certainly now knows the full size of the job he has taken on.

In a game of penalty decisions, two given, and one not, Wolves had the more raw deal.

Villa’s Jack Grealish had already given a warning of his close control before he got into the penalty area, where he went down under a challenge from Dominic Iorfa - his England Under-21 international team-mate in midweek.

Kodjia converted the penalty, but Wolves levelled just 19 minutes later, also from the spot - a far less controversial decision.

Having left Costa alone on the edge of the area, a desperately back-tracking Aly Cissokho tried to cover but the Wolves winger’s goalbound left-foot curling shot struck his outstretched arm, and Costa himself converted the spotkick.

Wolves then had the best penalty shout of the lot early in the second half when Micah Richards bundled over Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, but nothing was given.

The visitors could feel aggrieved but they had only themselves to blame after that as Prince Oniangue and Bodvarsson both struck efforts wide, sub Nouha Dicko shot over from an angle and Ivan Cavaleiro’s goalbound shot was brilliantly blocked by Alan Hutton.

*Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce told BBC WM:*

“There’s a lot of work to be done. The hardest part in management is always getting over a relegation. We’ve now won only four games in 55, which is an alarming statistic, but it’s my job to find a formula to win.

“We did well with all the late blocks and saves we made, but we tired badly, which was alarming.

“It would have been nice to bring big Rudy Gestede on, or Jordan Ayew, and make an attacking substitution. But we had two struggling with calf injuries, Micah Richards and Tommy Elphick. They’ve now got no chance of making it on Tuesday night (at Reading).”