The team that played tonight were barely recognisable from the heroes that defeated Tottenham at Wembley on Sunday. Only Rocha, Wilson and Brown from that side started the game as Ashdown, Ward, Vanden Borre, Diop, Basinas, Ritchie, Utaka and Smith (wearing a face mask) were given the chance to impress.
Avram Grant's was so stretched due to injuries that only Hassan Yebda, Frederic Piquionne, Leonard Sowah and Marlon Pack made a bench that didn't even contain a reserve 'keeper after Liam O'Brien presumably injured himself in the warm up.
So a patched-up Pompey side full of inexperienced players were charged with the task of playing against Wigan and they stuck to their task pretty well from what I saw/heard on the radio (damn the stream cutting out on me!)
It was a game of few chances in honesty. Ritchie had a couple of headed attempts in the first half whilst Paul Scharner was guilty of missing a couple of clear chances for the hosts. He also had the ball in the net after finishing a move from a free kic, but the Austrain was clearly offside.
Jamie Ashdown thwarted James McCarthy after the youngster, who could have joined Pompey in the summer, struck his shot towards the corner following some good passing from Roberto Martinez's side.
Wigan had a lot more possession in the second half but struggled to do much with the ball as the Wigan strikers failed to hit the target with some of their better chances and when their shots did hit the target, Ashdown was equal to them.
Avram Grant must have been cursing his luck when Rocha got injured and had to be replaced by Sowah. The young German initially had a hard time dealing with the tricky Charles N'Zogbia but settled as the game wore on.
Pompey could have nicked it at the death when Kirkland had to tip over Smith's cross-shot but had to settle for a battling draw as Wigan fans booed their team off following a disappointing performance.
I suppose you have to be delighted with the spirit that our lads showed tonight, especially as there were so many absentees. I'm curious as to why Jamie O'Hara didn't feature but I can understand why Grant wouldn't have wanted to risk anyone carrying a knock from Sunday.
Just four more games left in the Premier League then, but I'm sure most Pompey fans aren't even thinking about that. I'm still buzzing after Sunday's result!