For once, the story at Fratton Park was not about absentee owners, mysterious investors or unpaid wages, but rather forwards hitting the net. At the final whistle it was almost possible to forget Portsmouth’s off-field misadventures and remember the football team, who had just won their first home league match of the season.

Aruna Dindane, the striker on loan from Lens, was celebrating a hat-trick. A fortnight previously he had been ruing a trio of amazing misses, but after a well-taken first league goal for the club and an assist for Frédéric Piquionne — also scoring his first league goal — the confidence flowed.

Portsmouth stay at the foot of the table, but two other promising signs were the team spirit that prompted Kevin-Prince Boateng to invite Dindane to complete his hat-trick from the penalty spot rather than attempt to become outright leading scorer, and the fact that the defence had kept its third successive clean sheet.

Wigan, though, remain an enigma — capable of beating Chelsea and losing abjectly to the bottom club. Toothless in attack and indecisive in defence, they failed to muster a shot on target. Their shambolic performance was a dismal end to a bad week after the jailing of Marlon King and the controversy caused by an interview given to a Spanish newspaper by Roberto Martínez, the manager.

“It is disappointing for [King], his family and for everyone,” Martínez said. “He has been working very hard to try to get his rewards on the football pitch and then all that is stopped, so we will have to see how it develops.

“Some parts [of the interview] were made up and that is something that we will be seeking advice on. But overall it is important that whatever happens off the field, on the field we all know our jobs. Portsmouth, with all their instability and bad headlines, can turn out and perform the way they did today, so that is a clear example that in football all that matters is on the pitch.”

Portsmouth (4-1-2-1-2): D James 5 — S Finnan 5 (sub: N Belhadj, 42min 6), Y Kaboul 7, M Wilson 6, T Ben-Haim 7 — M Brown 8 — H Yebda 5, J O’Hara 7 (sub: H Mullins, 86) — K-P Boateng 7 — A Dindane 7, F Piquionne 7 (sub: Kanu, 57 7). Substitutes not used: J Ashdown, A Mokoena, D Webber, T Smith. Next: Blackburn Rovers (a).

Wigan Athletic (4-1-4-1): C Kirkland 4 — M Melchiot 5, T Bramble 6, E Boyce 4, C N’Zogbia 5 — H Thomas 5 — S Sinclair 4, M Diamé 4, P Scharner 4 (sub: J Gómez, 59 6), H Rodallega 5 (sub: O Kapo, 59 5) — J Scotland 4. Substitutes not used: M Pollitt, A Amaya, Cho Won Hee, D de Ridder, J McCarthy. Booked: Thomas. Next: Fulham (h).