With a dismal following from Portsmouth the game lacked any sort of atmosphere and the Latics team failed to develop the sort of urgency that a side at the foot of the league are expected to generate.

The football was slow and laboured and few clear cut chances were created against a severely depleted Portsmouth side with nothing but a distant FA Cup Final to play for.

Charles N'Zogbia was the only real threat in the first half but he was quiet in the second. Hugo Rodallega found little of the ball on the right flank and when he should have passed to Marcelo Moreno at hte death he chose to go for glory.

James McCarthy had the other notable opportunity for the Latics as he forced his way into a shooting opportunity on the edge of the box.

Everything the Latics threw at the Portsmouth goal was dealth with by Jamie Ashdown but it wasn't enough.

It's Arsenal on Sunday and with the Gunners out of the title race following their defeat to Tottenham, the Latics will be hopeful of putting more than the present five points between them and the bottom three.

Here is the reaction of the two managers.

Roberto Martinez

It's disappointing because before the game we saw this as a great opportunity as the home side. Portsmouth came here with a new-look team, were very well organised and got behind the ball.

In doing that they limited us to very little and although we got into some very good positions we just couldn't take advantage. We had a good few half-chances but never really made their goalkeeper work enough.

We tried playing further up the pitch, isolating the full-backs to give ourselves the advantage. I thought we got into some good positions, but lacked that composure or a final decision to make them count.

I was pleased with the concentration and effort we put in off the ball. It's easy in anxious situations to lose concentration and make mistakes but we didn't allow that to happen. So we'll take the point and get ready for Sunday.

The league is very tight and it will be like this until the end of the season. It's important now that we recover properly from this game in order to meet the demands of playing two games in a week.

Although the disappointment is there we have to grow from this and become stronger for Sunday's game. We've got two home games left so it's important we learn from the anxiety we suffered at times tonight and get ready for those challenges.

Avram Grant

The Premier League need not say anything about Portsmouth. They need to give us an award because we are playing as we play with a lot of injuries - it is not ideal for us.

But what can I do, we have many players who were injured so we used some players from the academy and I was very pleased with them. We needed to do it because we have a very small squad. Hassan Yebda was on the bench but even he was not fit and therefore he didn't play.

We didn't even have a reserve goalkeeper on the bench but Ashdown did very well. In the last three games we've had clean sheets and he has played in two of them.

The table

Next game

The visit of Arsenal on Sunday and a close on sell out crowd as the Latics seek to push further towards survival. After gaining only one point last night against Pompey, this game takes on further significance.

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