Portsmouth Football Club News

Emmanuel Adebayor’s first-half header condemned Pompey to their fourth successive Premier League defeat. Paul Hart made three changes from the side that beat Hereford in the Carling Cup on Tuesday. Tommy Smith and Michael Brown made their Blues debuts, while Hayden Mullins came into the midfield. John Utaka, Angelos Basinas and Joel Ward all dropped to the bench, while Asmir Begovic continued to deputise for the injured David James in goal. Aaron Mokoena dropped back to partner Younes Kaboul in the centre of defence, with the South African also handed the captain’s armband. Pompey started brightly and did not look over-awed against a star-studded expensively-assembled Manchester City side. Frederic Piquionne just failed to beat Shay Given to Aaron Mokoena’s long ball out of defence on seven minutes. The French striker then latched onto Brown’s pass from deep but could only rifle his shot into the side netting. Manchester City’s first opportunity arrived on 13 minutes when Richard Hughes was booked for a late challenge on Stephen Ireland. Carlos Tevez stepped up to take the free-kick from 30 yards but Begovic had the ball covered as it flew comfortably wide. But it was from another free-kick that the visitors almost broke the deadlock. Begovic failed to hold Wayne Bridge’s dangerous cross under pressure from Joleon Lescott, but the keeper recovered quickly to palm the ball out of Micah Richards’ path. Tevez then drilled a shot straight into Begovic’s arms as City began t exert some pressure on the Blues back-line. But it was his strike-partner who opened the scoring on 30 minutes. Gareth Barry sent a perfect corner into the box and Adebayor rose above Kaboul and Mokoena to head home. Manchester City thought they had doubled their advantage soon after but were denied by the linesman’s flag. It was a controversial decision, though, as Craig Bellamy’s low cross was converted by the onside Richards and not the offside Barry. Half Time: Pompey 0 Manchester City 1 The visitors had a good opportunity to extend their lead early in the second half after Hughes was harshly adjudged to have fouled Adebayor, but Bellamy’s fee-kick was diverted over the bar by Mokoena. Begovic then made a smart stop to deny Togo striker Adebayor as Manchester City continued to pour forward. Pompey were playing with plenty of industry but struggled to create anything once they entered the final third. A quick free-kick did provide an opportunity on 63 minutes. The ball found its way to Niko kranjcar but Kaboul could only head his cross wide. And moments later Smith intercepted Lescott’s wayward pass and sent a dangerous ball into the box that just evaded Mullins. Hart decided shake things up on 68 minutes, bringing Utaka on to replace Smith with Kanu coming on for Piquionne soon after. Pompey tried to create some more openings and Mullins had a shot deflected wide, before Kaboul fired over. But it was Utaka who went close to levelling on 78 minutes, taking the ball past Bridge and flashing a shot inches past the post. A free-kick into the box was then only cleared as far as Hughes but, with plenty of time to compose himself, the midfielder fired wildly over the bar. David Nugent then replaced Hughes and within seconds of coming onto the pitch, the striker had an excellent chance to rescue a point for Pompey. He did well to control Brown’s ball into the box with his chest but he scuffed his shot into the turf and Given made a comfortable save. Utaka’s header was then deflected into the keeper’s arms at the death as time eventually ran out for Pompey. Pompey: Begovic; Vanden Borre, Kaboul, Mokoena (c), Belhadj; Brown, Hughes (Nugent 87), Mullins; Smith (Utaka 68), Kranjcar; Piquionne (Kanu 74) Booked: Hughes, Mokoena Subs not used: Ashdown, Ward, Hreidarsson, Basinas Man City: Given; Richards (Zabaleta 60), Toure (c), Lescott, Bridge; Wright-Phillips, Ireland (de Jong 76), Barry, Bellamy; Tevez, Adebayor Goals: Adebayor 30 Booked: Zabaleta Subs not used: Taylor, Onuoha, Weiss, Petrov, Robinho Referee: Howard Webb

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