Aston Villa's John McGinn happy to play pantomime villain in Wolves draw

McGinn drew the ire of the home crowd in a stop-start encounter which featured 28 fouls but the Scot, booked in the first half for bringing down Pedro Neto, made no apologies for his approach.

Asked if he was happy with a feisty game, he said: “Aye, why not? You can have a scrap, a fight and an argument during the game, like I was having with most players.

“Pedro Neto, I respect so much, he’s a quality player, one of the best in the league. At the end we just had a laugh.

“He enjoyed the battle and I enjoyed the battle. I’ll look forward to coming back to Molineux next year.”

McGinn’s tangles with Craig Dawson were a focus of the first half in particular, with Wolves boss Gary O’Neil suggesting the Villa man was fortunate not to receive a second yellow card.

Explaining his tactics, McGinn replied: “If you look him (Dawson) up, he’s one of the best headers of the ball in Europe. I need to try and make it difficult for him to get a header.

“I feel I have experience to stop him but he is a strong guy. That’s why he has the stats.”

Sunday’s point was just the fourth Villa have claimed on their last seven visits to Molineux and McGinn added: “It was feisty, you need to go to Wolves and battle. You get made to feel very welcome.

“I thought there were a couple of decisions which went against me, though the yellow card was the clearest yellow card ever, so I can’t complain about that.

“When you are willing to put a foot in and get stuck in, it is trying to show that to the lads, that we are up for the fight. To be fair to Wolves, every time we come here they are up for the fight. I think we matched them in that area.”