The Carling Cup game between Portsmouth and Stoke City at Fratton Park on Tuesday Oct 27 2009.
Has another Premier League manager ever been dealt a worse hand than Paul Hart? After being forced to sell most of his best players, scramble together a cut-price team and endure a solid seven months of utter confusion behind the scenes, it is difficult to think of a less desirable set of circumstances.
Yet, despite everything, Hart’s team actually continue to produce performances that suggest all hope should not be lost and, last night, they swatted away an admittedly insipid and under-strength Stoke City with considerable ease. Frederic Piquionne was particularly outstanding but, most importantly, it was a performance to build confidence at every level of the club.
As ever these days at Portsmouth, there was as much intrigue surrounding who was in the directors’ box as on the pitch. Mark Jacob, the lawyer for Faraj, was again present alongside Hong Kong-based businessman Balram Chainrai and Israeli mogul Levi Kushnir, who both also watched the goalless draw against Hull City on Saturday.
Portsmouth are understood to be hoping that, within the next 48 hours, they will be in a position to confirm the involvement of Chainrai as an investor.
After the failure under previous owner Sulaiman Al-Fahim to honour the salaries of players on time, there remains an acute awareness at Fratton Park that it is payday on Friday.
Indeed, while Faraj might have rescued the club from administration, his intentions and wealth have also been firmly under the spotlight during a bizarre past week of rumour, claim and counter-claim.
Despite the off-field issues and their place at the bottom of the Premier League, it has been difficult to question the spirit of Portsmouth's players and they again started last night’s match with a purpose that belied recent results.
With Kevin-Prince Boateng, Jamie O'Hara and Tommy Smith all cup-tied, changes were inevitable, but Hart admirably resisted the temptation to field a team of reserves and instead largely took the attitude that any win just now would provide important momentum.
Frederic Piquionne had not scored since August, but began like a man possessed, constantly running at the Stoke defence as Portsmouth created a flurry of first-half chances.
With Aruna Dindane and Hassan Yebda helping to create space with their movement on the flanks, Piquionne quickly shot beyond Stoke goalkeeper Steve Simonsen only for former Pompey defender Andy Griffin to clear off the line.
Piquionne, though, did eventually provide the decisive touch to put Portsmouth ahead when he confidently finished an excellent move involving Dindane and Nadir Belhadj.
With 10 changes from the team that beat Tottenham on Saturday, Stoke’s limited threat was unsurprising and their only first-half effort of note was a shot from Liam Lawrence which sailed harmlessly over.
Fifteen minutes spent in the dressing-room with Tony Pulis did little to lift Stoke’s lacklustre approach and Piquionne was inevitably involved when Portsmouth effectively sealed their place in the quarter-finals with two goals in the space of four second-half minutes.
The former France international crossed for Danny Webber to double the lead and had the final touch in a goalmouth scramble after a fumble from Simonsen. Kanu then completed the rout in the 82nd minute with an immaculate finish.
Match details
Portsmouth (4-4-2): Ashdown; Borre, Kaboul, Wilson, Belhadj; Yebda, Brown, Mullins, Dindane; Webber, Piquionne
Subs Niemi, Mokoena, Hughes, Ben Haim, Kanu, Basinas, Nlundulu
Stoke City (4-4-2): Simonsen; Griffin, Cort, Higginbotham, Pugh; Lawrence, Arismendi, Whelan, Tonge; Sanli, Kitson
Subs: Parton, Soares, Sidibé, Lund, Wedderburn, Moult, Connor
Referee: P Walton
Att: 11,251
No comments:
Post a Comment