I arrived at Upton Park a moment or two into the game, feeling nice and positive, surely this would be three points? Pompey had only played a couple of days previously, no Defoe, Baros or Kanu in their starting line-up, and surely Curbishley would play one or two of the youngsters? Oh no, no such luck, instead I was greeted with the sight of the new ‘spine of the team’: Spector/Mullins/Boa Morte. Still, putting this to one side, we started brightly, with Dean Ashton and Nobby Solano looking particularly lively.
Our best chances of the game came early on in the first half, the opening one saw David James racing out of his area to head clear with Ashton bearing down on him, following a clever Solano through ball. The next chance came not long after, this time James was rounded by Bobby Zamora, only for the returning forward to screw the chance wide from an acute angle.
To be honest, that was the best of it. Ashton looked sharper than he has done recently, Parker battled hard in the centre of midfield, and Solano looked to create something whenever he was in possesion, but the Spark was desperately missing. Oh for a Di Canio, a Tevez…..
The rest of the first consisted of Portsmouth containing us without much trouble, Pedro Mendes sat in front of the back four, and on the odd occasion when we did break through Campbell and Distin had little difficulty tidying matters up for the away side.
Into the second half, and Pompey took control, with the dangerous Kranjcar coming more and more into the game. It was no surprise when just after the hour mark Kranjcar scored with a sweet left-footed shot from the edge of the area.
The postive points from the first half seemed to turn into irritations in the second: Ashton kept flicking the ball to no one in particular, Parker was running around in circles with the ball, bearing more than a passing resemblance to Dougal from The Magic Roundabout, and Mullins, well……
Curbishley did attempt to mix it up, bringing on Sears early on in the second half, and later Carlton Cole and Super John Pantsil. It cannot be denied that injuries have crippled us this season, as was evident tonight (where was Mark Noble by the way?), but we have a decent squad, and should really be winning games like this. I do not like to be negative with regards to our esteemed manager, but I am really beginning to question some of the team selections and his motivational abilities. Will he be here come the start of next season? Probably, and I am sorry to say that it does not have me salivating at the prospect of the 2008/9 season.
West Ham United (4-4-2): Green; Neill, Spector, Ferdinand, McCartney; Solano (Pantsil, 82), Parker, Mullins (Cole, 73), Boa Morte; Ashton, Zamora (Sears, 57). Substitutes not used: Walker (gk), Tomkins.
Portsmouth (4-1-4-1): James; Johnson, Campbell, Distin, Hreidarsson; Mendes (Hughes, 82); Mvuemba, Diop, Muntari, Kranjcar; Nugent (Kanu, 73). Substitutes not used: Begovic (gk), Lauren, Davis.
Referee: L Probert (Wiltshire).
Alan Curbishley
‘We thought this was winnable tonight but Portsmouth did all the threatening in the second half.
‘We are stuck in 10th but we won’t finish there if we don’t win any more games and there are five left in which we must do better than tonight.’
Harry Redknapp
‘Niko’s an outstanding footballer, real class. You all saw the goals he scored against England and Scotland for Croatia.
‘I took West Ham to fifth spot once when I was here and it would be nice to do the same with Portsmouth.
‘We’ve come a long way in the last few years. I’ve come back three times here and won now and the buzz is still as great.’