Villa manager Martin O’Neill admits there is more pressure on Wolves counterpart Mick McCarthy than him going into the derby duel.

The stakes are high for both teams in the Villa Park showdown with O’Neill’s side in the thick of a four-horse race for the Champions League, while McCarthy’s men are battling to stay afloat in the Premier League.

O’Neill knows only too well what the Molineux boss is going through having found himself in the very same situation when he brought Leicester up from the second tier via the play-offs 14 years ago.

The Northern Irishman believes the pressure is “exacerbated” when you are scrapping for survival at the bottom.

But he insists Wolves have the perfect man for the job already at the helm.

“You go in at the start of the season and people say there’s no pressure on you other than to stay up,” said O’Neill. “But there is pressure on you and there’s more pressure than before.

“Your concerns are can you cope throughout the whole season with the demands of the Premier League? That’s when you get the questions about your squad being good enough.

“Then there are periods during the season when you think absolutely everything is going along fine. You get a couple of good results, maybe you have an unexpected victory, and things look rosy.

“But the next thing you’re stuck looking for the next result to come around because the team maybe threw a couple of results away and has lost a bit of confidence.

“That’s probably true for most of us in the Premier League, but it would certainly seem to be exacerbated if it was your first season back (in the top flight).

“Expectation around Wolves would still be pretty high because Wolves have a pretty decent past.

“Mick would be aware of all that and has dealt with it admirably. I think he has proved what a very good manager he is.”

While the midweek win at Wigan was huge for Villa, Saturday’s success at Burnley was equally significant for Wolves – moving McCarthy’s men three points clear of the relegation trap door.

And the Villa boss expects their neighbours to have enough to stay up.

O’Neill continued: “I think you could tell by his (McCarthy’s) interview that he was absolutely ecstatic. He would be the first one, as he said himself, to try to play it down a little bit but it was so, so important.

“If the result had been reversed then your confidence is down. But if you play someone down in the same position as you and win, and importantly you win away from home, that gives you a massive lift.

“That Burnley result was psychologically so, so important to them. It gives them a big lift going into this match and I think they have the capabilities (to stay up).”

With Wolves in line to stay up and Albion looking increasingly likely to gain promotion, he is excited by the prospect of the West Midlands’ ‘big four’ all playing Premier League football next season.

He added: “Only time will tell whether it would be a great thing for us with so many derby games! But I do believe that for the area it is very important.”

Judging by the last derby meeting between the sides, O’Neill’s concern is well-placed.

Honours ended even when the sides met in October with Gabby Agbonlahor having looked like winning the game for Villa with a 79th-minute strike before Sylvan Ebanks-Blake levelled from the spot just four minutes later.

And it was an outcome O’Neill admits he could have no complaints with.

“It was very much like a derby game,” said O’Neill. “It was one that the two clubs hadn’t played for quite some considerable time and it felt a bit strange.

“Nothing really happened in the first half of the game. If anything, Wolves were brighter than us in the first part of the game and, as you would expect from the side at home to be very buoyant.

“I thought we got to grips with it in the second half. It would have been great if Gabby’s goal had been enough to win it for us.

“Then we conceded the penalty and although we were disappointed on reflection the draw was probably a fair result.”

As for this derby game, O’Neill, who could name an unchanged side, is expecting another closely-fought contest.

“Make no mistake, this is a derby game and I would be very concerned about the game because it will be tight,” he said.

“We’ll have to work for every available square foot of space. I’m hoping we’re prepared for that because it will come as no surprise to the players.”

Key to Wolves’ hopes will be leading scorer Kevin Doyle, a player regularly linked with Villa before his move to Molineux.

“I’ve seen quite a lot of him,” O’Neill added. “He has done very well indeed. It’s his third season in the Premier League after the two with Reading and I think he’ll be pretty pleased with his first season at Wolves.”

The Villa manager is still to taste defeat in a derby game as claret and blue chief having presided over three victories over Birmingham, two wins over Albion and that draw against Wolves.

However, despite boasting such a proud record, the Northern Irishman revealed there is no chance of him revelling in such statistics – just as he didn’t wallow in self-pity when he read about his well-documented miserable March record until this season.

“I must admit I tend not to get overly carried away with things like this because all things can change,” he added.

“It’s a bit like this whole March statistic. I understand that it’s something that journalists have to look for but I was told that Sky Sports had run something that Liverpool, until they beat Portsmouth, hadn’t won a game on a Monday night for some time! Where will it end?”