If Harry Redknapp has had a miraculous first week in his new job at White Hart Lane, the opposite is true for the assistant he left behind at Fratton Park. While Redknapp’s Tottenham Hotspur side have benefited from errors by opponents and seen the woodwork act as an unpaid extra defender, Tony Adams has presided over two Portsmouth defeats that already suggest that he may not be a lucky general.

Wigan Athletic ended their run of four defeats thanks to injury-time goals in each half. “We had four that hit the bar and four off the line,” Adams said. “I’ve never known it in 25 years of football. It was incredible.

“But I’m not resigning just yet. The performances are important, because results can lie. I have a good team and we will start winning. At the moment Tony Adams’s team are really entertaining, they just don’t get results.”

So will he be contacting Arsène Wenger, his mentor, for advice, or perhaps some mutual commiserations? “Alex Ferguson has been more approachable than Arsène,” he said. “It’s very rare that I get a conversation with him. He’s sometimes a difficult man to track down, Arsène. But you have to be careful, you want to put your own print on things.”

After Niko Kranjcar had cancelled out Amr Zaki’s first-half penalty with his first goal of a season ravaged by injury, Portsmouth went for victory but left the back door open. Wigan might have found a winner on two occasions before Emile Heskey finished from Lee Cattermole’s pass to score his 100th league goal.

The England forward played down the landmark. “It’s a nice achievement, but I am just doing what I can do,” he said. “You are not going to be brilliant all the time, so you have to work hard. People have had a dig at me over the years, but that is normal if you are not scoring as many goals as you should be. I have not had one teammate who has said a bad thing about me, and that is the main thing.”

Mark of Respect - 8/10

Both sides were too busy battling the elements in torrential rain to challenge decisions at Fratton Park, and Portsmouth in particular were cursing their luck rather than Peter Walton, the referee.

Portsmouth (4-4-2): D James 5 – G Johnson 5, S Campbell 5, S Distin 5, N Belhadj 5 (sub: N Pamarot, 90min) – P Bouba Diop 4 (sub: J Utaka, 73), L Diarra 8, S Davis 5, A Traoré 4 (sub: N Kranjcar 46, 6) – P Crouch 5, J Defoe 5. Substitutes not used: J Ashdown, Y Kaboul, R Hughes, Kanu. Next: Sunderland (a).

Wigan Athletic (4-5-1): C Kirkland 5 – M Melchiot 5, T Bramble 6, E Boyce 6, M Figueroa 5 – A Valencia 6, W Palacios 6, L Cattermole 8, J Koumas 6, E Heskey 7 – A Zaki 5 (sub: H Camara, 89). Substitutes not used: M Pollitt, R Taylor, P Scharner, K Kilbane, W Brown, D de Ridder. Booked: Cattermole, Bramble, Figueroa. Next: Stoke City (h).

Referee P Walton Attendance 18,416