Notwithstanding the inflatable doll that was lobbed among the Aston Villa fans and the chants advocating that young women show him their assets, John Carew displayed his scoring prowess where it matters yesterday.

The Norway striker, fined a fortnight’s wages for being at a lap-dancing club on the morning of Thursday’s Uefa Cup victory over Ajax, returned to the action he gets paid for when he got off the substitutes’ bench to make one goal for Gabriel Agbonlahor and score another

Carew played like a man who owed his manager a debt of honour yesterday. Villa were already far superior to a Wigan Athletic side losing for the third game in a row — for the first time in Steve Bruce’s year at the helm — when Carew came on for Gareth Barry, who, having scored the penalty that gave his team the lead, was withdrawn with an ankle injury.

The joke runs that, asked what a private dance costs at the Rocket Club on Birmingham’s Broad Street, Carew should answer £100,000. That is how much he reportedly earns in two weeks and yesterday, as he nodded Ashley Young’s corner down for Agbonlahor to score, before heading home his sixth goal of the season after Agbonlahor’s brilliant run down the left wing, Villa fans will be content that he had earned it.

Agbonlahor played the lone front role expertly and it was his run down the channel that invited Titus Bramble’s rash challenge for the penalty. And, although Brad Friedel had to save brilliantly from Bramble’s header and Olivier Kapo, while Daniel de Ridder missed with the goal gaping, it was a fair reflection of the game when James Milner teed up Steve Sidwell, on his Premier League debut for Villa, to score a rasping top-corner drive.

Wigan Athletic (4-2-3-1): C Kirkland 6 — E Boyce 5, P Scharner 3, T Bramble 3, M Figueroa 5 — L Cattermole 4 (sub: M Brown, 81min), W Palacios 6 — D de Ridder 5 (sub: R Taylor, 81), O Kapo 4 (sub: J Koumas 6, 46), E Heskey 5 — A Zaki 5. Substitutes not used: M Pollitt, K Kilbane, T Cywka, H Camara. Booked: Palacios. Next: Fulham (A)

Aston Villa (4-5-1): B Friedel 5 — L Young 7 (sub: C Davies, 79), C Cuéllar 6, M Laursen 7, N Shorey 5 — J Milner 7, N Reo-Coker 6, S Petrov 7 (sub: S Sidwell, 85), G Barry 6 (sub: J Carew 54 7), A Young 6 — G Agbonlahor 7. Substitutes not used: B Guzan, Z Knight, C Gardner, M Harewood. Booked: Young, Reo-Coker. Next: Blackburn (H)