Direct, decisive and damning.

Less than 12 hours after watching the 'highlights' of Villa's final match of the 2011-12 season, scowling at yet more defensive irresponsibility, player indifference and managerial culpability, before skulking off to bed to lie awake and inwardly fume at the sheer incompetence that had rendered the previous nine and a half months the most shambolic and miserable I've ever endured as a fan, news.

I don't personally know any Wigan fans, so I can only guess at how they were feeling over the past weekend.

Triumphant? Jubilant? Proud? I'd guess at all three, and I can understand why. Their team looked doomed just a few short weeks ago, but instead of staring down the abyss and panicking, they galvanised themselves as a unit and propelled their way up the table with a series of impressive results.

Maybe now it's beginning to feel real. Villa could get relegated.

I've been poor wind-up value over the last couple of months. Friends and colleagues - smug grins on their faces - have been falling over themselves to get the Villa jibes in; things aren't looking good, eh? Starting to struggle, aren't you? Reckon you'll get sucked into the battle at the bottom?

So, welcome back, Martin.

We knew you'd return one day, although, if we're honest, it was something of a mild surprise that you're back with Sunderland; thought you'd have kept on eye on events at Chelsea and Spurs, maybe even the England national team, played the waiting game, stalling for a bigger prize.

Still, we're hardly in a position to judge, so forgive us if we've come across as a bit sour. We still are, you see: sour, sore and slightly jealous. You might feel some of those emotions coming from us on Saturday.

There's no substitute for winning matches.

That's the lesson Villa need to learn after the threat of relegation was put firmly back on the agenda. It can still happen, if we don't wake up to the danger and actually approach a match with the intention of winning it.

I was exactly 232 words into this week's Villa column when I heard the news. Stiliyan Petrov, Villa's captain, has been diagnosed with acute leukemia.

... and everything feels much better.

It's been almost pleasant being a Villa fan for the past couple of weeks; with this Tuesday's scheduled match against Bolton being postponed, the glow that comes with winning has lasted that little bit longer. There's nothing like a victory to put an extra spring in the step and Villa's 1-0 win over Fulham was perfectly timed; without a home win since the beginning of winter 2011 (November 5, to be precise), this was a first Villa Park three-pointer for four months.

There are some not-so-subtle diversionary tactics being deployed around Villa Park; we've only just entered March, but it seems the club has its focus firmly on the 2012-13 season already.

Whether this is excellent forward planning, or a way of trying to ignore the stagnant nature of our current situation, I haven't yet decided.

There was a certain atmosphere of sadness in the air as Villa took the field against Wigan last Saturday - sadness because, in 90 minutes time, Villa would be saying farewell to a top-class striker for the remainder of the season.

What wasn't known, as the teams lined up at the DW Stadium, was that, come 5pm or thereabouts, Villa would be facing the reality of losing a second forward player of undoubted quality.

I’m not endorsing the sole use of video highlights to judge a footballer’s ability, but, as news broke this week of yet another injury setback for Fabian Delph, I couldn’t resist a viewing reminder of how good the player can be.

Villa fans have never seen Delph anywhere like his best in a claret and blue shirt and the creeping concern now is that we never will.