Chief Sports Writer Martin Swain pinpoints the here and now significance of the Villa and Wolves derby ahead of the tussle at Molineux.

Villa fans are flush with confidence about tomorrow’s Molineux contest – and you can’t really blame them.

These two old warhorses of the region’s football scene have not been close since the 1970s, now remaining more distant than the eight points and 11 places which separate them now.

Villa have been in the Premier League since Day One, Wolves are in only their second season. It is no exaggeration to say that the clubs’ respective team developments are hundreds of millions of pounds apart.

While Wolves are rightly proud of their three-year ascent from the collapse and break-up of their previous Premier League squad, it is a revival which pales in comparison to Villa’s climb to the foothills of Champions League qualification.

No wonder then, that three quarters of the fans on one Villa supporters’ site are confident of a success not too dissimilar from the 4-0 pounding Dave Jones’s team suffered five years ago.

So thank goodness for derbies and their unique atmosphere. Each is different and each capable of sparking unexpected twists in the story.

Not always, but sometimes. It is that capacity for a levelling of the playing field, coupled with some genuinely encouraging signs from within the home camp, that should give the gold and black cause heart for what could be a genuinely exciting and open contest.

If you look closely at the collective body of the Wolves family, you can still see the bruises from their previous Premier League campaign which is why three times already this season it has been possible to detect faith and confidence wobbling.

Wolves got a first game to order – at home, against West Ham. They blew it. Three games later, they went to Blackburn and got turned over easily. Far too easily.

Then that ‘must-win’ home game against Portsmouth – naturally, Wolves became the first team to lose to the bottom club. Each of those set-backs have shaken supporters who want to believe but are perhaps frightened to for fear of more heartache. Yet each time, the men from Molineux have come bouncing back.

Lose to West Ham? Go and win at Wigan. Duffed up at Blackburn? Collect their first win of the season against Fulham. Blow the Portsmouth match? No problem – up to Goodison Park for a point which perhaps should have been three. No-one, but no-one, was predicting that last one.

These should be seen by the Wolves contingent, as true signs of not only the thriving team spirit we have been told about but some genuine quality within the ranks. It is sometimes easy to overlook the merits of a side we have all watched grow, warts and all, over the last three years – familiarity breeds contempt after all.

But I don’t think Tony Cascarino and Martin O’Neill, both of whom have this week tipped Wolves for survival, were just paying lip service to convenient agendas.

O’Neill would say that of course wouldn’t he? I hear you say. But no he wouldn’t. Not if he didn’t mean it.

The reason why he and the old Villa and Ireland striker have taken such a positive view of Wolves immediate future is because Mick McCarthy’s lot are playing well –  with great energy, aggression and a promise of goals which has not yet been delivered upon, but continues to bubble under the surface.

Now comes the reality check. They need to do all of that tomorrow. Flat out and full on because they are meeting a Villa side which is enjoying its autumn and, on paper, carries the edge in personnel all over the pitch.

If the rise and rise of George Elokobi has levelled out in the toughest league of them all, then the big man needs to rid himself of any creeping doubts and handle a wonderfully in-form James Milner tomorrow.

If Ronald Zubar does, as the Frenchman reckons, now feel at home in his new surrounds, then tomorrow would be a good time to prove it by cutting out as many of Ashley Young’s searing crosses as possible.

Just one man survives the last league meeting between the two teams and Jody Craddock must remind us why, nearly six years later, he is still a redoubtable top flight defender.

The veteran cannot hope to match John Carew’s physical presence or Gabby Agbonlahor’s burning pace, positioning and experience will be the key for Craddock, his partner Christophe Berra, and Wolves need the pair of them to get their calculations spot on to withstand the menace of Villa’s fast-breaking forays.

The tests all over the pitch go on for Wolves. Stephen Warnock has looked more accomplished than anyone, even O’Neill, could have imagined when the £8million arrived to take up left-back duties and if Michael Kightly can keep him so occupied his support for Young is diminished, he will be doing his team an invaluable service.

In midfield, Stiliyan Petrov was magnificent against Chelsea and must be controlled by Karl Henry if Villa are not to monopolise possession Which leads to the other key question hovering over this contest.

If Wolves can handle Villa’s pace on the counter-attack, their testing service from each flank and those devilish set-pieces, is it possible to see them scoring at the other end? You sense they will have to, possibly twice, to get something from this game.

O’Neill’s team also comes armed with the best defence in the division and Kevin Doyle and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake – should that prove to be McCarthy’s option – face an enormous task prising chances from the Richard Dunne and James Collins partnership.

It was stretched and strained by Chelsea but it never collapsed. If Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka couldn’t snap them, what chance Kevin Doyle and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake?

But Ebanks-Blake is a picture of brooding goal threat at the moment and has a career record which suggests one or two must come soon. His sharpness, dulled by early-season injury, is returning and not for the first time in his Molineux career, he carries much hope on those powerful boxer’s shoulders.

There is, of course, one ‘man’ Villa can’t control.

Early kick-offs can neuter the atmosphere at any ground but Wolves need Molineux throbbing and committed. If they meet with early difficulties, they will need the supporters to stay with them and not allow self doubt to spread down to the pitch; Villa would pick that off ruthlessly.

Most of all, we can hope for a vibrant match. Wolves have been positive in their outlook thus far and even though they know the dangers of going at Villa and leaving the backdoor unlocked, should continue along that approach path tomorrow.

Cold analysis must concede there is a better chance of Villa beating Wolves than Wolves beating Villa. But I favour a scoring draw – and one which could showcase each team’s capacity to achieve their season’s targets.