WINNING a derby is wonderful and losing a derby is painful.

But this particular fixture had so much more riding on it than emotions.

A step closer towards Premier League survival was at stake for the winners and in the end, Wolves, the team with more hunger, more passion and more desire, earned the right to that elusive edge nearer to safety.

In contrast, the relegation battle took a huge swing away from Villa after a gutless performance in front of their hurting fans.

After years of success under Martin O’Neill, albeit not to the extreme of the early 1980s, Villa supporters had started to forget what it feels like to feel so low.

Well now they know, and boy did they let it be known as Gerard Houllier felt the full wrath of an unhappy 35,000-strong crowd.

A torrent of abuse was directed towards the manager at the final whistle and the result has left claret and blue jobs subsequently on the line.

While it remains unlikely that Villa will sack Houllier after this disastrous result, the Frenchman now faces an uphill battle to win the fans over again.

Survival is a must if he is to achieve that and, although it still seems strange coming to terms with, Villa are now realistically battling to stay in the division.

What’s even worse is that, based on Saturday’s performance, they face a massive task to survive if they continue to perform that way.

While it would be unfair to take anything away from Wolves’ dogged and resolute performance, Villa were simply woeful, and clearly lacked any kind of leadership, which was evident from the off.

Matt Jarvis was the match-winner and his superbly-taken goal was a strike good enough to settle any game.

The winger volleyed in the first-half winner after Christophe Berra knocked down Jamie O’Hara’s pin-point free-kick.