GARY Gardner earned Villa a deserved point following a frustrating afternoon at Hinckley.

The highly-promising midfielder headed an equaliser in stoppage time. Kevin MacDonald’s men have now drawn both their opening games in the Premier Reserve League.

A strong line-up included Marc Albrighton, Ciaran Clark and Eric Lichaj, who had all featured for Villa’s first team the previous week, but it was rookies Graham Burke and Samir Carruthers who were first to trouble Lee Nicholls.

The Wigan stopper kept out a fierce drive from Burke and palmed away a Carruthers header.

But six minutes before half-time Wigan took a shock lead through Calum McManaman, who ran on to a through pass by Nouha Dicko to neatly shoot past Benjamin Siegrist.