Matt Maher: Bragging rights shared in a derby that is left to simmer

Wolves more so than Villa.

For Gary O’Neil’s team, this was an acceptable enough sequel to the previous weekend’s blockbuster win over Manchester City, a draw which maintained upward momentum and took them four points clear of the bottom three.

You could also make a decent argument for this being a solid result for Villa, though immediately after the final whistle it did not feel like it.

Ollie Watkins held his head in his hands after sending a header against the post with the last action of the match, the visiting team having laid siege to the home goal following Mario Lemina’s dismissal in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

A winner looked imminent but ultimately Villa could not beat the clock, Nicolo Zaniolo sending an effort across the face of goal and wide, with Jose Sa denying Ezri Konsa as whistles from the home crowd grew louder, together with the frustrations of O’Neil and his coaching staff at what they saw as referee Rob Jones’ rather too relaxed approach to timekeeping.

Unai Emery later bemoaned a missed opportunity to leap into the top four. At the end of a season where Champions League qualification is very much the main aim, perhaps they will reflect on the failure to grab two extra points in final moments at Molineux with lingering frustration.

Yet the big picture, for the moment, is hardly bad. This draw might have halted a run of three consecutive Premier League wins but a return of 10 points from four matches, during a period which has seen Villa play seven times in 22 days, is still decent going.

They remain fifth in the table and have taken four points from two Sunday league away trips following Thursday night European ties. Throw in the fact this was just the fourth point they have taken in their last seven visits to Molineux and it becomes clear there are more reasons to be cheerful with a 1-1 draw than not.

A Villa win would also have been harsh on Wolves who, while creating fewer chances, still carved out some excellent ones and were at least the equal of their visitors before Lemina’s dismissal left the teams with uneven numbers.

O’Neil also had cause to rue lost opportunities, Pedro Neto having blazed high over the bar with just Emi Martinez to beat after being picked out by substitute Sasa Kalajdzic’s cross.

The miss was the one major blot on another impressive performance from the Portugal international, whose rebirth has been one of the biggest positives of the season’s opening two months. After two years of frustration with injuries, he now looks back to the player who seemed poised to take the Premier League by storm under Nuno Espirito Santo.

Villa’s wariness of Neto was partly behind Emery’s decision to juggle his system and switch to a three-man defence. In the first half it worked well, Lucas Digne and John McGinn combining to either cut out the supply line or – in the case of the former’s booking – simply break the laws to stop the winger’s progress.

Yet the first time Neto found space in the match, he used it to devastating effect. Pau Torres proved no match for his pace and when a low cross was fired across the box, Hwang Hee-chan was there to finish, the third time this season the pair have combined for a goal.

Hwang, meanwhile, now has six goals in all competitions, as many as last season’s top scorer Daniel Podence managed across the entire campaign. Wolves, while not yet an outfit you could describe as oozing goals, have also netted in every match since the opening night defeat at Manchester United.

The annoyance here will be how quickly they allowed Villa off the hook. Just two minutes after Hwang, who started the move for the goal by robbing Douglas Luiz deep in Wolves’ half, had netted in front of the North Bank, Torres was doing likewise at the other end of the pitch. Sticking out a leg to divert Watkins’ cross beyond Sa, he gained swift redemption for his failings with the opener. The noise reverberating around what had been a somewhat subdued Molineux during a stop-start first half was suddenly quietened.

You wondered then whether Villa might push on but it needed Lemina’s exit for them to make any serious headway. For all the firepower they possess, this was another afternoon which made you ponder their ability to break down teams prepared to sit deep. Barring two McGinn crosses which saw Cash and Watkins bring saves from Sa – the second superb – at the start of both halves there was little in the way of clear-cut chances before the late, unsuccessful barrage.

Boubacar Kamara and Moussa Diaby both passed late fitness tests to start but looked slightly off the pace with the latter enduring perhaps his most ineffective Villa appearance to date. Other than an early cross which found an unmarked Torres, the record signing was largely a bystander.

The second-half goals at least provided a welcome relief to the staccato pacing, which will have made watching much of the match a chore to the neutral observer. By the final whistle the statistics showed referee Jones had awarded 28 fouls (19 against Wolves) but it felt like more. On multiple occasions the official appeared ready to blow for an infringement, only to change his mind. He was not helped, it must be said, by the willingness of players on both teams to find the ground.

The repeated restarts robbed the afternoon of any rhythm and it was difficult to determine which, of either side, might be getting any benefit. O’Neil’s frustration at the officials also contributed to a confusing scene where he and Emery failed to shake hands, though any suggestion of a lingering spat was quickly dismissed by both in the aftermath.

It was in many ways a fitting postscript to a match which threatened to catch fire without ever truly doing so, an afternoon where neither team really got what they wanted but by the finish were satisfied to take what they did.