Lee McCulloch scored one and made another as Wigan lived up to their tag of top six favourites by outclassing a lacklustre Millwall 2-0 at The New Dean.
McCulloch leapt onto David Wright's long cross from the right to blast in his second of the season on 50 minutes before he turned provider for Jason Roberts to seal it late on.
But the hosts were fortunate to lose by just two as Wigan blew a host of chances. Nathan Elliott was the worst culprit in the string of goalmouth misses - but Matt Lawrence was lucky not to gift the visitors a goal just before the break.
Lawrence escaped when he bizarrely opted to blast over his own bar - narrowly missing his own goal - in first half injury time when keeper Graham Stack was safely going to collect it from Ellington's tame shot.
It was Ellington's third missed chance in the first half, as Wigan failed to turn their dominance into goals. And just after the break he blew another opportunity when he scuffed wide having beaten Ward.
Millwall had precious few shots on goal, and fans will be hoping manager Dennis Wise makes good on his promise of spending the £2.5million from Tim Cahill's transfer - not to mention the FA Cup earnings.
But the Lions' new Canadian discovery Josh Simpson stole the limelight - before inexplicably being replaced by Neil Harris as part of a triple substitution just after Wigan's goal.
Simpson, making his debut start for Millwall, worked tirelessly up the left and had his marker, Wigan captain Matt Jackson, repeatedly tied up in knots before being subbed off to a standing ovation.
Early in the first half he whipped in two pinpoint crosses to fellow new boy Stefan Moore and Danny Dichio but the pair were unable to capitalise.
And Dichio - part of a three-pronged attack in late in the game with Harris and Mark McCammon - should have levelled on 65 minutes when he rose to meet Peter Sweeney's cross but headed wide.
Jody Morris came close to opening the scoring twice in the first 15 minutes. He first fired just wide with keeper John Filan beaten, then had his 20-yard rocket parried.
The chances woke Wigan up, and 10 minutes later Nathan Ellington should have scored but ballooned his header over the bar from just six yards out. And two minutes before the break he forced Graham Stack into a diving save - but failed to follow up after the keeper spilled the ball.
Wise almost pulled one back two minutes from time with a 25-yard curling free kick, which needed an acrobatic save from Filan to keep it out of the net.