Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley reacts to his side's defeat at Wigan Athletic

Cowley's men suffered their first defeat - and conceded their first goal - in the league, with Callum Lang firing home on 78 minutes.

And Pompey lived to regret not making the most of their strong spells in the game, with Ronan Curtis squandering their two best opportunities.

“It’s disappointing to lose a game that we had complete control of, particularly in the first 70 minutes," said Cowley.

“When you come to a side that have spent as much money as Wigan have and do that...then there are obviously a lot of positives.

“But I just felt we gave the ball away too cheaply – especially in the final third – during the second half.

“Joe Morrell and Shaun Williams gave us real control in the middle of the pitch and the first half was as good as we’ve played this season.

“But we need to be much more ruthless when we’re cutting through them at will. Our quality has to be better in those moments.

“When you have that much control, you’ve got to make it count with goals – which we were unable to do.

“We continuously got the ball into the right areas and we lost a cutting edge, while they scored with their first proper shot on target.

“A couple of players perhaps fell off physically towards the end and that’s also something for us to look at.”

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