By Rob Bishop at Villa Park

Villa ended their Wigan Athletic hoodoo with a stylish performance which left the Latics a well-beaten side.

A goal in each half from Gabby Agbonlahor and Darren Bent ensured that Wigan's unbeaten Premier League sequence at Villa Park did not extend to a seventh season.

Both goals were superbly taken and Bent's 62nd-minute volley was extra special - it was his first goal at the Holte End since his club record move from Sunderland last January.

Villa could have won even more convincingly, with Bent, Barry Bannan, skipper Stiliyan Petrov all denied by Wigan keeper Ali Al Habsi.

And when the visitors came more into the game in the later stages, the previously untroubled Shay Given responded with some excellent saves.

Not for the first time in recent seasons, Wigan opened confidently, although Villa created the better early chances.

Agbonlahor's well-struck second-minute shot took a deflection into Al Habsi's arms, and when Bannan's floated pass was headed down by Bent, Agbonlahor fired over as he was closed down inside the penalty area.

Then Bent set up Stephen Ireland for an angled shot which hit a defender and went behind for a corner, and in the 20th minute Bent climbed highest at the far post to head Bannan's free-kick just over.

Mohamed Diame produced the visitors' first effort a minute later, the midfielder's 25-yard shot deflecting for a corner, but Villa were soon back on the offensive.

Fabian Delph curled a 20-yarder wide following a neat build-up between Bannan and Agbonlahor and on 25 minutes only Al Habsi's agility prevented McLeish's side from going ahead.

Bent took out two defenders with his superb control of Bannan's perfectly-weighted high ball before drilling goalwards from eight yards.

But Villa supporters' celebrations were stifled in their throats as Al Habsi saved with his left arm then knocked the ball away for a corner with his right.

But after Ireland had sent another shot over the bar, the home side were deservedly ahead in the 36th minute.

Stephen Warnock won a tackle deep in his own half and played it short to Bannan, who once again opened up the Latics' defence with a magnificent 30-yard pass through the left-hand channel.

Agbonlahor surged to the edge of the penalty area before cutting inside his marker and firing an unstoppable 15-yard shot past Al Habsi and into the roof of the net.

Three minutes before half-time, Franco Di Santo dragged a low shot just wide of the far post in a rare moment of threat from the Lancashire outfit but within a minute of the resumption Agbonlahor nearly added a second, the striker making a scintillating run through the heart of the Wigan defence sending a 20-yard right-footer only inches beyond the far post.

Villa were now in full flow. Delph's clever reverse pass set up Bent for a shot which was blocked by Wigan skipper Gary Caldwell for a corner, while Bannan's magnificent rising left-footer from 25 yards was heading for the top corner until Al Habsi leapt acrobatically to his right to tip it over.

The keeper was nearly in trouble a few minutes later, though, when he initially misjudged Agbonlahor's cross from the right and saved his own blushes by stretching to push it on to the bar.

A second goal looked increasingly inevitable and it arrived in the 62nd minute.

Agbonlahor dispossessed James McCarthy on the half-way line and then outpaced Emmerson Boyce down the left. His cross from the left evaded Wigan defenders and fell perfectly for Bent, who volleyed right-footed into the bottom corner from six yards.

The visitors were now forced to push forward more, and Bannan cleared off the line before Given made a double save in the 72nd minute, diving to save at former Villa midfielder Shaun Maloney's feet before pushing away Di Santo's shot from the rebound.

In between times, Petrov had been desperately unlucky to see his swerving 30-yarder pushed over by Al Habsi, while Bent had lobbed home delicately, only to be ruled offside.

Wigan almost grabbed a consolation goal in stoppage time, Given reacting well to tip aside a Victor Moses shot which took a wicked deflection.

VILLA: Given; Hutton, Collins, Dunne, Warnock; Bannan, Petrov, Ireland (Heskey, 57), Delph; Bent (N'Zogbia, 73), Agbonlahor (Weimann, 86). Unused Subs: Guzan, Albrighton, Clark, Herd.

WIGAN: Al Habsi; Boyce, Caldwell, Figueroa, Van Aanholt; Stam (McArthur, 56), Watson, McCarthy (Sammon, 85), Diame (Maloney, 71); Di Santo. Unused Subs: Kirkland, Gomez, Jones.