Portsmouth strengthened their position at the top of Sky Bet League One with a hard-fought 2-1 victory at 10-man Wigan.

The home side, in the drop zone as a result of their eight-point deduction, started the brighter and took the lead after 27 minutes.

Charlie Wyke and Scott Smith helped the ball on to Martial Godo and the on-loan Fulham winger slotted into the far corner of the net.

The lead only lasted four minutes, however, as Jack Sparkes’ corner was flicked on by Colby Bishop for Regan Poole to get the final touch.

Portsmouth took the lead eight minutes before the break when Paddy Lane fired the ball past Sam Tickle, via a slight deflection off Kell Watts.

Wigan’s task became even tougher when Wyke was shown a straight red card four minutes after the restart for a rash challenge on Marlon Pack.

But the home side never gave up the ghost and were denied what looked to be a stonewall penalty for handball, which saw both benches involved in the technical area and yellow cards for Wigan No 2 Graham Barrow and his Portsmouth counterpart Jon Harley.