Villa boss Martin O’Neill has challenged his team to beat the fatigue factor as they embark on the latest leg of their punishing programme at Wigan.

A season which has seen the claret and blues reach the Carling Cup final and last four of the FA Cup continues with a must-win game at the DW Stadium, which will be O’Neill’s Champions League-chasers’ 15th game in 62 days – and it doesn’t end there.

The rearrangement of Premier League fixtures to accommodate their cup runs as well as the big freeze – which forced the postponement of this fixture in January – has left Villa facing another fixture pile-up with tonight’s game the first of four games in 11 days in the remainder of March.

Furthermore, games against Hull and Everton are set to be rescheduled for April, which would see the team play seven games that month.

O’Neill has stuck with virtually the same players for the rigorous run but admits there will come a time when changes will be needed.

He said: “We have been going non-stop. By Saturday we will have played 16 games in 66 days from January 20 – one every four days and that is a lot.

“You have to fit them in at some stage, but there are periods in April when the weather gets better and the players will enjoy a week’s rest somewhere in between games.

“It will be hectic schedule for us. I know that and we have to be up for the task. The squad over the next few weeks will become absolutely vital.”

O’Neill has credited his backroom staff for their part in keeping his players fresh for battle.

He said: “Recovery is the most important element of it all and we try to do as much to allow the players to recover as quickly as possible.

“But I’ve been very impressed with our medical staff and our fitness people. We have played a lot of games and it is to their credit, the players and the backroom staff, that we have been ready to go so often.”

Wigan have earned a reputation for being a Jekyll and Hyde side having beaten Chelsea, Liverpool and Villa this term while conceding nine at Tottenham, five against Manchester United and four at Bolton last weekend.

But O’Neill insists the Latics’ surprise yet fully-deserved opening-day victory over his team is all the proof needed to know their opponents, who sit four points clear of the drop zone in 15th, cannot be taken lightly.

The manager said: “With their results and the way they’ve played this season, their victories haven’t really surprised me. But some of their heavy defeats have.

“In fact, I was there the day they lost against Tottenham at White Hart Lane. It was 1-0 at half-time and you would have got long odds on them conceding eight goals in the second-half.

“You couldn’t have seen it, but Tottenham had a blinding 25-minute spell where everything they hit went in. It was a demoralising day for Wigan, but they have recovered.

“It’s their performances against the big sides that puts into context our own result at the start of the season.

“I don’t know whether they play better against the better sides, they beat us on the opening day of the season and since that they’ve had some really excellent results, they beat Chelsea and yet they’ve lost heavily in some of their matches.

“It’s been a strange one, their young manager must be wondering what side will turn up.

“But they have the capability of winning football matches and they’ve beaten us, they’ve beaten Chelsea and they’ve been beaten Liverpool this season and that stat alone is enough for us to be really concerned about the game.

“Last Monday is the only game I can really judge, because it’s the only one I saw and I thought they played terrifically on the newly laid pitch.

“They’re in their fighting for everything now. I don’t know what happened at Bolton – obviously we had someone at the game – but I did see the Liverpool game.”

Fit-again Gabby Agbonlahor could return to the starting line-up after finding himself on the bench at Stoke on Saturday.

O’Neill said: “Gabby should be absolutely fine now. He would have wanted to have played, I’m sure. He doesn’t miss too many and he hasn’t missed too many in my time here. There was his own illness and a number of factors why he just didn’t start the game.

“He’ll be absolutely fine and I hope it stays fit and without illness between now and the end of the season because he’s very important for us.”

Villa boast the best defensive record in the Premier League and have kept more clean sheets with 12 than any other side in the top flight.

O’Neill said: “It has been a big improvement on the last couple of years. Obviously with Martin Laursen being missing since really December of last year – he only played one game after that against West Brom – he was a major loss and Curtis Davies was out injured as well since the Liverpool game at the start of the season.

“So it was absolutely imperative that we got some defenders in with experience and I couldn’t be more pleased with Collins and Dunne.

“They’ve been absolutely fantastic the two of them and they’ve helped pull the whole defence together, that’s not withstanding the contribution of the other players defensively. I’ve really been pleased.

“We’re also capable on a rash day of letting goals in like against Blackburn Rovers, but overall we’re much more solid than we’ve been here in the last couple of years.”