Portsmouth Football Club News

Two goals in the first four minutes left Pompey in all kinds of trouble at the Reebok Stadium, but Peter Crouch’s header means they are just one goal behind at the break. Tony Adams made six changes from the side that beat Heerenveen in the week with David James, Sol Campbell, Sylvain Distin, Sean Davis, Niko Kranjcar and Jermain Defoe all returning to the starting 11. There were two familiar faces in the Bolton side with former Blues Andy O’Brien and Matt Taylor starting for the hosts. And it was Taylor who opened the scoring with under a minute on the clock. He latched onto Kevin Davies’ flick, controlled the ball neatly and fired in a shot that went under James and into the net. Johan Elmader almost doubled the lead immediately but he could not find the target after bursting through on goal. However, Bolton did double their advantage on three minutes with Jlloyd Samuel’s cross headed across goal by Taylor and Ricardo Gardner finishing with aplomb. It would have got worse for Pompey moments later but Davies could not quite get on the end of Gretar Steinsson’s low cross. The game settled down after such an incident-packed start but Pompey were not causing the Bolton defence any problems. They managed to reduce the deficit with their first attack of the match on 20 minutes, though. It was a moment of genius by Kranjcar that created the goal, the Croatian using the outside of his right boot to swing an excellent cross into the area that CROUCH duly converted with his head. The Blues were starting to look stronger as the half progressed but they almost conceded again on 31 minutes. Davies’ through ball was latched onto by Elmander but the Swede fired over. At the other end, only a fine save by Jussi Jasskelainen denied Kranjcar from equalising after the midfielder had done well to bring the ball under control. It was end to end stuff now and only some brilliant last-gasp defending stopped Pompey from falling further behind. First, James made a great save with his feet to deny Gardner, before Hermann Hreidarsson blocked Taylor’s follow-up shot. Papa Bouba Diop’s brilliant pass then sent Crouch racing through on goal but the striker was eventually shrugged off the ball by O’Brien. A great opportunity was squandered by Defoe on 41 minutes. The England international miscontrolled Richard Hughes’ header allowing Jaaskelainen to claim the ball. Hreidarsson then failed to make a decent connection after Crouch had sent Noe Pamarot’s superb cross-field ball into the area. Bolton should have scored right at the death when Taylor sent in a dangerous free-kick from wide on the right. James did brilliantly to push Steinsson’s close-range header onto the post, before Gary Cahill contrived to blaze the loose ball high over the bar. Pompey: James; Pamarot, Campbell (c), Distin, Hreidarsson; Diop, Davis, Hughes, Kranjcar; Crouch, Defoe Goals: Crouch 20 Booked: Defoe Subs: Ashdown, Wilson, Little, Diarra, A.Traore, Kanu, Nugent Bolton: Jaaskelainen; Steinsson, Cahill, O’Brien, Samuel; Taylor, Nolan (c), McCann, Gardner; Davies, Elmander Goals: Taylor 1, Gardner 3 Subs: Al Habsi, Shittu, Muamba, Smolarek, Riga, Basham, Obadeyi Referee: Martin Atkinson

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