Wigan Athletic 0 Portsmouth 0

WIGAN ATHLETIC

Latics could have virtually guaranteed their place in the Premier League for next season by beating Portsmouth, but even with eight changes the Pompey team stood firm as Wigan just couldn’t find that goal to kill off this very one sided game.

From the first kick Latics had control of this game, but there was something lacking, a passion, a desire to win, a sense of urgency and composure. We had more than enough chances to put this to bed against a very untested Pompey side that fielded a few of their fringe players who all camped out in their own half and put up a ten man wall in front of their keeper.

The first bit of danger came from Jason Scotland but his shot was wide of the mark. N’Zogbia started to come into the game but his just couldn’t find his feet and nine times out of ten couldn’t get past his man, and when he did most of his crosses were woefully under par. He did get a good cross in to find Scharner but the Austrian was nowhere near with it and fluffed his header.

It was to be a very bad night for Scharner as he was way off the pace and wasn’t committing himself to tackles. Steve Gohouri and Figueroa were trying to get in on the act but both players lacked the final touch that would have sent the DW Stadium daft. Pompey did manage a shot on goal 5 minutes before the break, but the largely redundant Kirkland dealt with it easily an launched the ball back up field.

The half ended with a free kick on the edge of the area, Rodallega and Scotland lined up for it but it was wasted. Luckily the ball did find its way to N’Zogbia who put in his best cross of the game for Scharner to bang into the back of the net, but it was ruled out for off side.

The second half unfortunately continued in the same vain, with us knocking it around and on the rare occasions we managed to get through the barrier we didn’t have enough quality to turn the ball home. Scotland managed to miss the chance of the game as he guided a free header the wrong side of the post, he further confounded the Latics fans as he shoots right at the Pompey keeper, a foot either way and he would have been a hero.

Martinez left his sub far too late as he gave Victor Moses a whole 5 minutes to make an impact on the game and he nearly did as a corner is fired in, but his contact was blocked and that sent the ball ricocheting around but as is our luck the Portsmouth defence manage to hack it to safety.

The final whistle went and Latics were left to wonder how they couldn’t raise themselves enough for this game, they will need to be 100 times better than this on Sunday or else we could see another cricket score.

Report by Jayt