Analysis: No hiding place for Aston Villa after Wigan horror show

Yet the slow trudge taken across the DW Stadium pitch by Villa’s players, to applaud what still remained of the away following, at least suggested they understood their performance fell way, way below the acceptable.

“The lowest moment of my managerial career,” was how boss Dean Smith chose to describe an afternoon which, when everything is taken into account, must also rank as the lowest point of the current campaign and, just maybe, the couple before.

Villa, remember, were supposed to be heading into the game refocused and rejuvenated, after a week which had seen them hold on to top scorer Tammy Abraham.

Instead, they were brushed aside by a Wigan team who had been beaten in six of their previous seven matches and not scored on their own turf since November.

The sorry defeat was the latest in a string of blown chances for Villa to make up ground on the top six, though to talk of play-offs and promotion feels somewhat laughable in the aftermath of Saturday’s showing.

It was so bad, so much worse than anything else this season, there might almost be a temptation to write it off as an aberration.

That, however, would be ignoring the nagging sense it had been coming, through several weeks during which Villa have lacked direction and a spark.

Despite having won just one of the previous six, the expectation was for results to turn once a testing fixture list began to ease. On Saturday, against a team who began the day in 20th place, that was exposed as a myth.

Even at their best under Smith, Villa had a tendency to concede needless goals. That frailty still remains, except now their own attacking weapons are misfiring. They have scored just four in four and at Wigan drew a blank for only the second time this season, having failed to register an effort on target.

If only that were the biggest concern.

Rarely in the past 18 months, even in the final days of Steve Bruce’s reign, did it ever feel appropriate to question Villa’s desire. It feels fair today, though, after a game in which they were so comprehensively outworked and outfought.

How much did they really want it? Wigan certainly did, battling from the first whistle to the last in blustery and damp conditions.

Villa, by comparison, gave lethargy a bad name. Victory would have taken them to within two points of the top six, though you would never have guessed it.

While the players must undoubtedly take a good, long look in the mirror, Smith must also do some soul-searching.

Villa’s head coach was quick to admit his “radical” triple substitution just past the hour mark had, in hindsight, done little to help.

If anything, it made his team worse, with Kortney Hause unsurprisingly looking short of match practice, in what was only his seventh appearance in 18 months.

Smith is not the type to over-react and will understandably retain faith in players who, only a few weeks ago, were producing performances which ranked among the club's best in years.

By the same token, he must also acknowledge the current set-up simply isn’t working. It did with Jack Grealish in the starting XI and could still do so again, when the playmaker returns in a few weeks.

But without Grealish’s running and vision, Villa’s midfield looks pedestrian and is frequently out-gunned, while their wingers are currently offering little in either attack or defence. The pace of Axel Tuanzebe, another injury victim, is also being missed from an ever-creaky backline.

Put simply, what worked a month ago isn’t working now and there is a feeling Villa, to some extent, have been figured out. Saturday was the most glaring evidence yet a rethink is required.

This defeat was particularly painful for Smith, a man who takes pride in his calm demeanour, but for whom defeats in charge of his boyhood club sting just that bit more.

It is now going to require all his experience, together with that of assistants Richard O’Kelly and John Terry, to ensure a season which only a few weeks ago felt alive with promise doesn’t rapidly fizzle out.

Hull, the Championship’s most in-form team, will arrive at Villa Park aiming for a seventh straight win.

Prior to Christmas, the Tigers only aim was on avoiding relegation. Now they are very much in the play-off shake-up and their turnaround should serve as a reminder of how in the Championship fortunes can quickly change, no matter how bleak they might appear.

Yet Villa, for their part, now desperately need a result and performance which can convince supporters – and perhaps most importantly themselves – of what they can, or even want to be. Smith was right, Saturday has to be the low point.