Preparations took a blow when Glen Johnson had to pull out with a hamstring tweak whilst Sean Davis, Nadir Belhadj and David Nugent had all been hit by a vrius which kept them out. This meant that Paul Hart opted for 4-4-2 with Utaka up front with Crouch and Armand Traore and Jermaine Pennant on the wings.
The lack of preparation showed as Pompey were second best for virtually the entire game. There were a few players who already seemed to have the holidays on their mind which isn't acceptable given the amount of Pompey fans that spent their hard-earned cash travelling to watch them.
Wigan cantered and controlled the game from start to finish and it was only because of some good saves from Begovic that kept the score at 1-0 after Sol Campbell completely missed Charles N'Zogbia's cross which gifted Hugo Rodallega an easy tap in.
The second half was much the same although Pompey had a good chance when Utaka raced through on goal but skewed his shot over. That was as good as it got for the Pompey fans who were happier punching inflatables around the stand and cheering every time the Villa-Newcastle score was flashed on the scoreboard.
Wigan had numerous chances with Hreidarsson and Kaboul struggling to deal with Valencia and N'Zogbia on the wings, though thankfully the score was kept down due to poor finishing and some good goalkeeping from Begovic. It was a good thing it was only 1-0 too as another goal conceded would have seen Pompey drop below Blackburn into 15th place.
Minds will now turn to next season and if we keep performing like that away from Fratton Park then we are in serious trouble. The Kanu charity match was of better quality than this despite the so-called "lower" standard of footballer on show. (It finished 5-4 with Matt Ritchie scoring a couple of crackers.)
It's going to be a long summer after a very turbulent season for the blues. What will await us in our seventh season in the Premier League?
Pompey Player Ratings
Asmir Begovic: 8 - Kept us in the game.
Younes Kaboul: 5 - Struggled.
Sol Campbell: 6 - Solid apart from costly mistake.
Sylvain Distin: 6 - Got the basics right.
Hermann Hreidarsson: 5 - Given problems by Valencia all game.
Jermaine Pennant: 5 - Didn't have any impact.
Richard Hughes: 7 - His best performance for some time.
Hayden Mullins: 5 - Poor once again.
Armand Traore: 6 - Bright at times.
John Utaka: 6 - Looks better as a centre forward.
Peter Crouch: 5 - Out of the game bar one chance.
Substitutes
Jamie Ashdown
Linvoy Primus
Martin Cranie
Noe Pamarot
Angelos Basinas
Jerome Thomas (Pennant 72): 6 - Did OK on rare appearance.
Kanu (Kaboul 72): 5 - No impact at all.