When Steve Bruce took over from Chris Hutchings back in November, Wigan Athletic were 19th in the Premier League, having registered just two league wins in 13 games, and were heading down to where their many detractors around the country felt they belonged.

That they have survived relegation goes down as arguably the greatest achievement in the long and eventful professional career of Bruce. They achieved their goal in considerable style, which Bruce has managed to bring to the club in such a short space of time, finding within themselves only their second away win of the season.

Two second-half goals from the Ecuador international Antonio Valencia, who Bruce signed permanently in January from Villarreal, not only guaranteed Wigan’s safety but put a serious dent in Aston Villa’s chances of qualifying for the Uefa Cup. A performance on a par with this next weekend at the JJB stadium and Bruce’s side might even contribute towards wrecking Manchester United’s season.

It was also impossible for supporters of both clubs to ignore events transpiring at Craven Cottage, where Fulham’s victory meant deep trouble for Birmingham City, the club that accepted a compensation pay-off of around £3m from Dave Whelan when he came looking for Bruce’s services. The Wigan chairman must also now pay a bonus of around £1m for Bruce, though that £4m looks like some of the smartest money he has ever invested, with their continued Premier League status worth about £60m for the club.

“I was very proud of what I achieved at Birmingham but this season [at Wigan] we had nine points with 16 games gone,” said Bruce. “It’s never easy to go in and make a big impact quickly and make big decisions. I haven’t achieved much in management but this is probably as big as I’ve had. I’m delighted that I have repaid the faith of the chairman who forked out all that money to turn the club around.”

Villa are always vulnerable when Gareth Barry has a bad game, and that he was a shadow of his usual self yesterday may have owed much to Liverpool’s advances late last week. “It didn’t help,” Martin O’Neill commented about the bid for his captain that has clearly annoyed him intensely. “But that was not the main reason why we lost and I’m not giving it as an excuse. We were very disappointing.” Villa, who did bid an emotional goodbye to Olof Mellberg, enjoyed the lion’s share of a quiet first half, but Titus Bramble and Paul Scharner absorbed most of what was thrown at them with the minimum of fuss and Chris Kirkland was an excellent last line of defence, keeping out headers from Zat Knight and Gabriel Agbonlahor.

Wigan’s best chance – in fact their only chance – of the first half had fallen to Marcus Bent, who blasted wide after Wildred Bouma failed to control the ball properly from a corner, so there was little to hint at the way Villa were to be blitzed in the opening quarter of the second half.

Wigan’s first goal on 52 minutes contained a large slice of good fortune after Jason Koumas had fed Valencia on the right-hand edge of the penalty area. His shot took a huge deflection off the right boot of Bouma and looped over the head of the helpless Scott Carson, who had emerged from his goal line to cut off the angle.

O’Neill, as is his wont, gambled immediately to get Villa back into the game and this time his strategy backfired. The centre-half Knight was hauled off the field to be replaced by Patrik Berger, and while Villa were reorganising their defence Wigan struck again through Valencia. Mellberg had just switched to centre-half, with Reo-Coker moving back to right-back, when an excellent headed flick-on by Emile Heskey landed between the two Villa players.

Valencia was on to it like a shot and blasted the ball right-footed from the inside left channel inside Carson’s near post for his second. Marlon Harewood was then thrown on by Villa but, if anything, their confusion worsened and they were a shapeless mess at the end. In fact, Valencia could have had a hat-trick when he latched on to Michael Brown’s ball on the break only for Carson to deny him.

The Intertoto Cup beckons for Villa, while Wigan are left with a valuable prize that at one point this season looked beyond their grasp – safety.

Afterwards Bruce acknowledged that he faces a week of questioning about motivating his team against Manchester United, but he insisted that his side would be going flat out to get a result despite having secured their place in the top flight once again.

Match stats

Star man: Antonio Valencia (Wigan)

Player ratings: Aston Villa: Carson 5, Mellberg 6, Laursen 6, Knight 5 (Berger 60min, 5), Bouma 6 (Harewood 69min), Barry 5, Petrov 6, Young 5, Reo-Coker 6, Carew 5, Agbonlahor 5
Wigan: Kirkland 8, Boyce 6, Scharner 7, Bramble 7, Kilbane 6, Valencia 8, Palacios 7 (Skoko 90min), Brown 7, Koumas 6, Bent 6 (King 77min), Heskey 7 (Sibierski 89min)

Scorer: Wigan: Valencia 52, 63

Yellow card: Wigan: Brown

Referee: R Styles

Attendance: 42,640