Villa return to losing ways and David O'Leary had now overseen 17 losses in the last 40 games, winning just 9. With a record like that, unsurprisingly, O'Leary swerved the post match interview once again only for his assistant Roy Aitken to take on the mantle of preposterous comment by claiming: “We needed more quality this season. The quality has been short in vital areas - at both ends of the pitch.” Now if only we knew who had been in charge of the club for the last three years. 

Villa lose at high-flying Wigan to leave them with five defeats in their last eight games and just nine wins in thirty five games under David O'Leary.

Right back Ulises de la Cruz, 31, makes his 99th and final appearance in a Villa shirt (74 Starts) as a substitute before moving on to Reading on a free transfer in July 2006. To the shock of nobody de la Cruz was not actually the “Ecuadorian David Beckham” as then manager Graham Taylor had described him on his £2,430,000 signing from Hibs in 2002 and over his 4 seasons with the club, a remarkable length of time, he recorded W36 D25 L38, 2 Goals, 9 Assists and 6 Bookings.

Juan Pablo Ángel makes his 175th appearance in a Villa shirt (134 Starts) to make it W62 D46 L67, 55 Goals, 16 Assists and 11 Bookings at a goal involvement rate of one for every 2.46 games he has played so far in his Villa career.

Liam Ridgewell contributes his 5th goal involvement in a Villa shirt on his 66th appearance (51 Starts) to make it W22 D16 L28, 4 Goals, 1 Assist, 7 Bookings and 1 Red Card so far in his Villa career.

Gabriel Agbonlahor contributes his first assist in a Villa shirt on his 6th appearance (2 Starts) to make it W1 D2 L3, 1 Goal and 1 Assist.