A MOST curious encounter: one where West Ham United had most of the possession, yet Wigan Athletic had most of the clear-cut chances. After 90 fascinating minutes, the spoils deserved to be shared but Wigan headed back up the M6 regretting a lapse of concentration. West Ham, though, will wake up today wondering just how and why they could see so much of the ball, yet be so unthreatening.

They said it wouldn’t last and they were right but you suspect Wigan savoured the psychological fillip of a brief peek at the Premier League peak last weekend. Today, they lie a highly respectable third and manager Chris Hutchings – still such an elusive quarry that his name was misspelled in Alan Curbishley’s programme notes – lauded his team’s early points haul.

“We just have to keep it going,” he said. “We haven’t got the players we’ve recruited just to survive. We want a season like our first in the Premiership.”

West Ham’s season still threatens to become engulfed in grubbiness, but they have other problems too, not least an impotent front pairing until Dean Ashton attains full fitness as neither Craig Bellamy nor Bobby Zamora have scored this season and they looked far from comfortable in each other’s company.

“I’m pleased we came back but disappointed we had to,” sighed Curbishley. “The possession we had meant we ought to have won but we didn’t deserve to get beat. To be honest, I’m disappointed we haven’t got more points on the board.”

As expected, Wigan were well-drilled, combative and, more than anything, determined to hold onto the parity they had strolled onto Upton Park with. In the end they succeeded, but it could have been better. “I wasn’t impressed with our first half, we let them dictate play,” lamented Hutchings. “And while I’m delighted with a point, I’m frustrated we didn’t hold on.”

All afternoon, West Ham were unsure just how to unpick this particular Lancastrian lock but did have their share of half-chances in the first half. Anton Ferdinand’s newly shorn head made powerful contact with Mark Noble’s cross, only to beat both Chris Kirkland and his post and when Kieron Dyer’s cross eluded the entire white-shirted defence, Zamora, on the edge of the six-yards box, missed his kick entirely.

Yet, when Wigan broke forwards, they picked at West Ham’s soft underbelly with such venom you wondered why they neglected to do it more often. Twenty five minutes in, Jason Koumas found himself free on the left, where Curbishley surely hoped Neill might be. Koumas’s cross was true, but Paul Scharner unaccountably headed wide. And as if to prove the point, Wigan’s second attack of the first period ended with Koumas’s drive hitting the outside of Robert Green’s post.

After the restart, Wigan slowly began to sense that three points was as plausible as one. Julius Aghahowa wasted another glorious Wigan chance when he fluffed a 53rd minute one-on-one with Green and then Scharner rattled a piledriver wide but with the crowd chanting for Ashton the home side looked bereft of ideas. An hour in, Curbishley acquiesced to the popular will. Off went Zamora, on came Ashton but Wigan grew braver, coming closer still when Mario Melchiot headed wide of an open goal from four yards after Green had parried Antonio Valencia’s effort.

West Ham had been warned but they chose not to hear and Wigan’s opener was hardly a surprise. Melchiot hurled a long throw-in towards goal from the right touchline. Emile Heskey trumped Matthew Upson to head on and Scharner hooked home a splendid overhead kick.

So focused while they were level, Wigan promptly undid their good work by falling soundly asleep for the two minutes they were ahead.

Ashton, though, still looks far from fully fit and he too struggled to impose himself upon Andreas Granqvist and Titus Bramble as did Luis Boa Morte, when he replaced a hobbling Bellamy. Yet, in a glimpse of what may be the future, Boa Morte and Ashton combined intuitively to craft the equaliser.

The pair played a delicate headed one-two before Boa Morte danced through the centre of the visiting defence and squared for a third substitute, Lee Bowyer, who sidefooted handsomely past Kirkland for his first West Ham strike. “He’s been desperate for a goal,” smiled Curbishley “But it just hasn’t fallen for him.”

After that, a visibly relieved West Ham trundled forwards in search of a winner they scarcely deserved. Wide awake once more, Wigan, though, were left to rue what ought to have been.

Star man: Mario Melchiot (Wigan Athletic)

Player ratings: West Ham: Green 7, Neill 5, Upson 5, Ferdinand 5, McCartney 6, Dyer 5, Mullins 6 (Bowyer 65min), Noble 6, Etherington 5, Bellamy 5 (Boa Morte 75min), Zamora 5 (Ashton 60min, 6)

Wigan: Kirkland 6, Melchiot 7, Granqvist 7, Bramble 7, Kilbane 7, Valencia 5 (Brown 77min), Landzaat 5, Scharner 6, Koumas 6, Sibierski 5 (Aghahowa 38min, 6), Heskey 7