Dean Smith: Aston Villa showed their character in derby win

Substitute Anwar El Ghazi’s stoppage time penalty was the only goal of a scrappy match at Molineux which saw both teams finish with 10 men.

Victory saw Villa leapfrog their rivals up to eighth in the Premier League table and Smith said: “It was a really competitive game and I thought we were up for it right from the start.

“We started really well and asked them a lot of questions but we probably didn't create enough big chances, as we’d like to.

“It’s a tough place to come but we showed a lot of character.”

Villa were indebted to goalkeeper Emi Martinez, who pulled off a brilliant save from Leander Dendoncker to keep the game goal-less, before they were presented with a chance to win it when Nelson Semedo tripped John McGinn in the box.

El Ghazi, who replaced Ollie Watkins as Villa’s penalty taker, duly bagged his first goal since January when he sent Rui Patricio the wrong way from the spot.

Smith said: “If El Ghazi had not been on the pitch, then Jack would have taken it. El Ghazi took our last one last season against Man City.

“Unfortunately due to VAR we’ve not been having too many penalties this season and Ollie missed the last one so Anwar took this one.”

The one sour note for Villa was the dismissal of Douglas Luiz for a second bookable offence. The Brazil international will now miss Thursday’s home match with Burnley through suspension.

Wolves also saw Joao Moutinho sent-off in the closing seconds in a match where referee Mike Dean brandished 11 yellow cards.

Smith said: “I thought there were a lot of soft yellow cards today. There were too many flashed around.

“It was a competitive game, niggly at times, but never warranted the amount of cards that came out.”