Hard work the formula for spectacular Latics’ results

Portsmouth 0 Wigan 2

Similarly, there is no complicated reason why Portsmouth seem to have lost the way to cope with it.

It is all about the response a manager receives from his players and it is abundantly clear that Paul Jewell is currently extracting everything from his.

Portsmouth thought they had turned the corner with a thumping 4-1 win at Sunderland a week ago but manager Alain Perrin had to admit they were second best.

“Wigan showed us how to fight to win a match. They are a great example,” Perrin said.

Pascal Chimbonda, who scored a late winner against Fulham last week, added to his tally with a free header from a 48th minute corner.

He then he set up the clincher for former Portsmouth striker Jason Roberts, one of the Wigan players who says he has been to see a hypnotist to improve his form.

Jewell said: “The players deserve all the credit. A lot of hard work goes on at the training ground and they do it for each other. But it is not my style to over-elaborate or over-celebrate.

“It is great we’ve got 25 points just 11 games in, but I’m not going to keep talking about how people wrote us off as soon as we came up.

“We could stay on 25 points couldn’t we? We could go down again with 25 points. Anything can happen in the Premiership.

“We’ve got two weeks now to prepare for our next game against Arsenal and it is something we know we have to deal with realistically, not just like being drawn against them in a plum cup tie.

“After that there are a lot of other tough games before Christmas - Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United and they are probably the best five teams in the league. It would be no disgrace not to get another point from any of them.

“But we have a winning mentality and everything is geared to winning. I’ve bought experience in the squad, especially among the centre halves, and all our people can do their jobs.

“I think I’ve improved, too, since I was last in the Premiership as a manager.”

Striker Roberts, who never scored a Premiership goal for Pompey during his season at the club, was quizzed after the match about his reported sessions with a hypnotist.

He confirmed the reports but admitted he should not have mentioned her as it was interpreted that she was actually a club employee.

Portsmouth might now need a measure of voodoo to bring their first home win of the season.

They have had six attempts so far but the next one is against Chelsea on November 26. First they have to visit Liverpool and face trips to Manchester United and Tottenham.

“Four tough games,” said midfielder Gary O’Neil, “but we’ve got to look to get points out of them now. We set ourselves seven from the last little flurry of games and picked up only four. So there is work to be done. It’s frustrating playing Wigan. They have two banks of four you have to get through and they are very solid. And it was so disappointing to let another goal in from a set-piece. We have to cut that out. We can’t make excuses.”