Wigan manager John Sheridan hailed the “unbelievable” free-kick which earned his side a first win of the season after a 2-1 Sky Bet League One triumph at Portsmouth.

Sheridan’s opposite number Kenny Jackett faces more fan calls for his head in the wake of defender Tom James’ spectacular set-piece.

Wigan took the lead six minutes before the break when Lee Evans fired a shot into the ground and over the stranded home goalkeeper Craig MacGillivray from 12 yards.

In a wind-dominated encounter, the visitors used the conditions to their advantage after 59 minutes when full-back James stunning 30-yard free-kick deceived MacGillivray.

Sheridan said: “It’s still early days for me, and my assistant Leam Richardson has to take a lot of the credit.

“I’m very pleased for the players – it was a good performance too. Maybe we let them into the game a little too much.

“They were two good goals too. You won’t see many better goals than the second one, an unbelievable strike. But any goal’s a good one in our position – (we were) looking for our first win. To get the first win is a big boost for us.

“We’ve still got some good players here. We all know the position and the circumstances around the club. We’ve just got to concentrate on the football.”

Jackett, meanwhile, was left cursing his team’s inability to turn possession into clear-cut chances, with his team failing to draw a save from visiting goalkeeper Jamie Jones until Ellis Harrison’s consolation goal, a minute from time.

The under-pressure boss said: “We had a lot of pressure in both halves and a lot of balls into the box. We didn’t get on the end of those to get the goals we needed.

“I thought it was a good goal from Ellis Harrison. We had a lot of set pieces we didn’t get on the end of.

“We started the game pretty well and played some good football for the first 20 or 30 minutes. Their goal knocked us in terms of our momentum going forward.

“But we built up a head of steam in the second half. We put a lot of balls into the box and into good areas, but we couldn’t convert that into the goals we needed to get us the win.

“We are disappointed with the start but we have to keep going, have to keep working away.

“The goals-against column is not too alarming. Wigan didn’t create too much but, still, we’ve conceded two goals.

“Going forward we need to convert some of the high number of set pieces we get.”