Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill was full of praise for debutant Curtis Davies after their 2-1 victory over Wigan Athletic.

Following a season-long loan move from West Brom at the end of August, Davies has had to patiently wait for his chance after a debut to forget.

The centre-back infamously described himself as "a pub player" in the wake of a 1-0 Carling Cup defeat at home to Leicester in September.

Since then Davies has barely had a look in as Martin Laursen and Zat Knight have nailed down the central defensive positions.

But with Knight sent off in the 4-4 draw at Chelsea on Boxing Day, Davies finally started his first league game for Villa in today's 2-1 win at Wigan.

After Titus Bramble headed the Latics in front in the 28th minute, Davies replied in the 55th minute, prior to Gabriel Agbonlahor's seventh goal of the season which sealed the win 15 minutes later.

Hailing Davies' performance, O'Neill said: "He certainly wasn't a pub player today - he is never going to live that down is he?

"But his performance today was 5,000 times better than against Leicester.

"He made a couple of fouls in the first half when he had no need to, which was perhaps over-exuberance.

"He then adjusted, got himself thawed out at half-time, and he was really terrific for us in the second half.

"It was a great effort from him, in particular as he has been waiting around for a while now.

"That's simply because the other two (Knight and Laursen) have had lengthy runs in the side and done brilliantly.

"But Curtis is a marvellous athlete and he has a great attitude in that he has had to be patient.

"He still has a lot to learn, but he can do it, and I hope he is here for the long haul."

He added: "It took us some time to come down from the exploits at Stamford Bridge and adjust to the conditions.

"We didn't cause Wigan too many problems in the first half and we really had to re-adjust.

"We had to get bite into our game, and I thought we achieved that in the second half."

The defeat ends Wigan's recent revival under new manager Steve Bruce, and the Latics are now back in the bottom three.

That is to the obvious disappointment of Bruce, who said: "We deserved something from that game.

"Both sets of players deserve a pat on the back for the effort and endeavour they've put in.

"They were atrocious conditions out there. There is nothing worse than that, with horrible, swirling wind, lashing rain and a poor pitch.

"Both teams have tried to put on a spectacle and I thought we handled the situation and conditions better for an hour.

"But gradually they came through in the second half and once they scored it was a difficult afternoon for us."