Hail the centurion as Heskey gives Adams a losing start

Wigan's England striker Emile Heskey scored his 100th career Premier League goal here on Saturday as his injury-time strike brought his side a welcome 2-1 win over Portsmouth.

It ended a run of four successive defeats for the visitors and inflicted a sad start to the Premier League managerial career of former England centreback Tony Adams, who replaced Harry Redknapp earlier this week.

Wigan had taken the lead when Egyptian striker Amr Zaki gave the visitors the lead on the stroke of half-time converting a penalty – his eighth goal of the season – awarded when Titus Bramble, who had been restored to the side after being dropped for the midweek defeat by Fulham, was brought down by Papa Bouba Diop in the box.

It was rough justice on the hosts who had dominated the first-half and indeed Diop had gone very close to scoring only for his header to be cleared off the line by Wilson Palacios.

Recalled Pompey striker Jermain Defoe had also gone close with a header and a shot in the first-half but went wide with both.

While Zaki provided the only threat to Pompey in an attacking sense the hosts had more to offer and England striker Peter Crouch went desperately close in the 51st minute after Diop had totally miskicked but the ball came back in and the lanky forward had a pop which went just wide of the post.

Crouch was at it again with 20 minutes remaining as his cracking header came off the bar, and just a minute earlier he had set up Defoe but Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland was quicker to react and gathered the ball safely.

Pompey were doing everything right but scoring and Defoe went close again 17 minutes from time after Crouch's flicked on header fell to him but his shot went wide.

The hosts finally got the reward they deserved eight minutes from the final whistle as Kranjcar – who had earlier gone close with a freekick being cleared off the line by Wilson Boyce – lashed the ball home past Kirkland from a corner.

Portsmouth were on a charge and it took a superb tackle by Palacios to deny Defoe as he prepared to shoot to stop what would have been a goal.

The hosts, though, had England goalkeeper David James to thank four minutes from time as he got down well to prevent Antonio Valencia from restoring Wigan's lead after a great ball from Welsh international Jason Koumas.

However it was Lee Cattermole who had his head hanging in shame in the final minute as with practically an open goal he fired wide but he was to prove more effective a minute later when he set up Heskey for the winning goal.