Portsmouth 4-0 Wigan Athletic: Dindane Hat-Trick Secures Vital Win

Portsmouth grabbed their first Premier League home win of the season with a convincing victory over Wigan Athletic to cap off a fine week for Paul Hart’s men.

Aruna Dindane was the hero for the south coast side, hitting a hat-trick with Frederic Piquionne also getting his name on the scoresheet as Wigan were swept away.

The Ivorian opened the scoring just after half an hour at Fratton Park. A superb through ball by Michael Brown found Dindane racing through the Wigan defence before calmly dinking the ball over Chris Kirkland.

The striker then turned creator as Portsmouth doubled their lead just shy of half-time. Dindane found Piquionne who beat the offside trap before firing a fierce shot past the Wigan keeper and into the back of the net.

Yet the break did not distract Hart’s men who continued the second half in the same vein and with a little over an hour on the clock they had their third of the afternoon.

Substitute Nwankwo Kanu, who replaced Piquionne after an ugly clash of heads with Emmerson Boyce, crossed for Dindane to force the ball home for his second of the afternoon.

Wigan were woeful, the effects of Marlon King’s prison sentence and manager Roberto Martinez’s midweek comments, possibly to blame and there was to be more misery as the game headed into stoppage time.

A Boyce trip on Kanu saw referee Alan Wiley point straight to the spot, allowing Dindane to step up and seal a convincing win that keeps Pompey bottom but moves them level on points with West Ham United.

Gill Clark, Goal.com UK