The Norway striker was "fined pretty heavily", confirmed O'Neill, for being out on the town in the early hours of Thursday morning and was left out of Villa's UEFA Cup game with Ajax that night because of tiredness.

O'Neill has taken action against the Norwegian but redemption was immediate as he climbed off the substitutes' bench at the JJB Stadium and created one goal and scored another.

O'Neill said: "John has been disciplined because he breached the rules.

"John thinks there are mitigating circumstances and I'm always prepared to listen.

"I listened to what he said and then I made a decision he was wrong.

"But it's not a problem - he's been disciplined, he's been fined and that's the end of the issue.

"It was a large oversight on his part, so consequently he's been fined.

"Most of the players in the dressing room are saying it should be doubled!

"John assures me it won't happen again so I will believe him.

"He's been fined pretty heavily as it wasn't the brightest thing to do.

"I think he thought that he wouldn't be playing (against Ajax) but he hadn't been told beforehand so he shouldn't have been out.

"It's been dealt with and he assures me it won't happen again. Up until next week I will probably believe it."

Carew's introduction for Gareth Barry, who hurt his ankle, in the 53rd minute breathed new life into Villa as an attacking force.

His header was bundled into the net by Gabriel Agbonlahor in the 57th minute and then Agbonlahor returned the favour by providing a cross for Carew to head home in the 62nd minute.

Substitute Steve Sidwell curled in a delightful fourth in the last minute to cap a fine win after Barry's 22nd-minute penalty put O'Neill's men in control.

O'Neill continued: "It was a great performance and a result I had not expected.

"With us having played on Thursday night, it was a concern, but there were some terrific performances all told."

Defeat was especially hard for Wigan boss Steve Bruce - who managed Villa's rivals Birmingham for six years - to stomach.

He pointed an accusing finger at his defenders and Titus Bramble in particular.

The former Ipswich and Newcastle centre-back continues to make costly mistakes and Bruce admitted there was no justification for his lunging tackle on Agbonlahor which conceded the first-half penalty.

"For me it was a penalty," said Bruce, himself a former centre-back. "There are no excuses because Titus should stay on his feet.

"Again, it was a glaring error of judgment by him. We are all told that you never go to ground when you don't have to in the penalty area, so I've got no complaints."

The Latics head for Fulham on Wednesday and Bruce will work hard to iron out the defensive flaws which have plagued his side in their last two games.

First they conceded three goals against Liverpool at Anfield before going one worse against O'Neill's side today.

Bruce - whose men have now lost three successive matches - acknowledged: "We haven't done our jobs defensively.

"That has been our strength because in the games that we've lost we have lost by the odd goal.

"We conceded three last week and four today. Three of the four that we conceded today were so poor defensively and the glaring mistakes were not acceptable at this level.

"If you do that against a really good Aston Villa side then you have your backsides kicked and we certainly had that today."