Portsmouth 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur

[funster]

Right, let's get this show on the road..... Even by my standards, this match report is very late in being posted. I can only apologise. Having withstood the perishing temperatures on Saturday, and being forced to engage in wedding planning on Sunday, I had to go to the midlands for work today, and having found myself running a slight fever..... well, plenty of excuses in there!

So finally we have an away win. At last we have a clean sheet. Reasons to rejoice as the festive season approaches!

For me, Portsmouth away is closer to home than the Lane so this is a fixture I look forward to every year. Unfortunately I've missed plenty of them, including last season's victory. In fact, I've only been to Fratton twice. Boxing Day a few years back when it was lashing down and blowing a gale. Oh, and Patrik Berger scored a couple of great goals to do us in. And once on a Monday night game when we also lost. Carrick took serious abuse that night for having turned his back on Pompey a few weeks earlier, and we got an insight to the less savoury elements in the Portsmouth crowd as they continually gave our players serious s$£t at every throw-in.

Those memories are almost wiped away! I actually went to the game with a Pompey supporting mate. Shocking, I know, but at that short notice to shift a ticket takes some doing so I took what I could rather than end up £35 out of pocket.

Arriving at Fratton I was completely confused by the fact that the Milton End now has a roof. Its only taken them..... well, its taken them bloody ages, but there is some hope now for keeping at least some of the elements out. Sadly, the roof is not accompanied by a back to the stand which is still effectively open to the elements so standing in Row X at the very back we were treated to a freezing wind on a freezing day. That, I suspect, had at least a little bit to do with the fact that I felt bloody awful on Saturday night when I got home! No idea what hypothermia feels like, but I don't fancy it!

The line-up was, shall we say, a surprise. Zokora partnering Kaboul at the back. At the time I had no idea Dawson had been rushed to hospital on Friday night so assumed there was an injury of some kind to report. All the less chance of keeping a clean sheet.....

Despite Porstmouth's rather poor home form - plenty of nil-nils lately - I really couldn't see us getting much more than a draw. Scoring draw, obviously. We surely couldn't keep a clean sheet?

The game itself was actually quite entertaining. Second half more so than first, but there was plenty to be commended throughout the match. We were, without doubt (and I think Redknapp has, to his credit, acknowledged this) much the better side.

After a shaky start at the back - Zokora and Kaboul found themselves much much too far apart much much too often for a centre-half pairing - we actually began to get our act together. This was at least in part due to Pompey lacking any real incisiveness. Not in the same manner as City last week. Nah, more like they couldn't really find themselves in a position to deliver good balls, while City lacked the incisiveness up front. For this we should be grateful. A side who played better on the day - and I count Portsmouth in this too - would have had much more joy if they'd got stuck in playing through the centre of our defence early in the game.

As it was, with that particular threat lacking, the defence grew at least a little in confidence and Zokora surprised me with how ably he seemed to do the job of standing in. Kaboul also played reasonably well after initially looking nervous as ever.

Particular praise, however, should go to the midfield. Jenas in particular was having a good game, really getting stuck in. He has played better, more consistently, since Ramos took charge than I can ever remember since we signed him. Boateng, partnering Jenas in the middle, ran around a lot, with some purpose, and generally got stuck in. Probably what was needed since a soft centre early on would've exposed Zokora and Kaboul too early. Lennon was a constant threat down the right, although his first half delivery was a bit shabby. Must've been the kiss of death when I'd said his delivery was his single most improved aspect since the new regime took charge!

At least a couple of times we could've taken the lead. The best effort fell to Boateng who shot straight at David James whilst he was falling over. From the other end of the ground it looked a bad miss, but in reality he was a lot further out than I'd thought. Malbranque was rightly flagged offside on the rebound. Bent had a couple of chances too and while we could be justified in wanting him to have been sharper, it was acceptable.

No score at half-time. Bloody hell! We must almost be getting used to this. As the second half got under way we pushed further forward and faster and both Lennon and Malbranque started to have significant success at beating their full-backs.

Early in the second half a moment of pure comedy as the massed ranks of Spurs fans chanted "England's number four" at David James, to be greeted by James turning around and signalling "Number five" with his hand! Fair play to him. He has clearly been around the game long enough to know a bit of banter goes down well.

As we continued to press there was frustration that Bent didn't seem capable to winning balls and beating players. The disquiet seemed to have an effect on him as he raised his game and began to beat Portsmouth defenders to balls that were played in for him to run on to. While his workrate was commendable from that point on, he seemed lacking the killer instinct that we needed to convert - particularly with Berbatov becoming increasingly influential up front (his first touch is still exquisite!).

So Bent was withdrawn, Defoe thrown on, and with Portsmouth still not finding much in the way of reward - although looking a bit better with the introduction of Nugent -(who had the best effort for Pompey - a header over the bar) we reaped our just rewards. Lennon broke diagonally down the right, lofted a ball over that Campbell flicked on only to find Berbatov unmarked at the far post to knock the ball past James! Another late goal for Spurs! 81 minutes I think this was timed at. Plenty of time even then for us to throw it away, but my mate Andy had seen enough to suggest that was it and our conversation at half-time suggesting one goal would be enough did indeed come true.

We could even then have scored one, maybe two more. Defoe was sharp as ever when coming on as sub and rattled the outside of the post with a late shot, but it remained 1-0 at full-time, and while some Pompey fans (I would suggest rightly in many cases) vented at the referee, we were left to celebrate our first away win of the season! Obviously, Andy wasn't overly enamoured, but he too agreed we were the better side.

Tests will be much sterner than this away from home - starting on Saturday at The Emirates. Already we have six points more than I'd expected in the lead-up to Christmas and that can only be a good thing. The movement is clearly in the right direction and two wins in a row is not to be sniffed at. Been a while since we strung that sequence of results together! But let's not kid ourselves - Zokora and Kaboul as a centre-half pairing? The former will clearly put everything into it, but there are many sides that would've exploited this weakness on Saturday better than Portsmouth did.

Had I written this on Saturday evening I'd probably have said forget that though. Let's dwell for a while on our success. But its now Monday night. We have City away (100% record for them at Eastlands) tomorrow in the League Cup and Arsehole away on Saturday. Two tough games. It shouldn't come as a surprise if we lose both, but maybe there are grounds for at least a shade more optimism now. Just a shade, so let's not get carried away. But who knows? Maybe Harry Redknapp's contention that we could overhaul them in the Premier League come the end of the season now has a bit more validity?

[Beats]

Looking foreward to it :2: