Portsmouth 2-1 Man City
A late goal from substitute Nwankwo Kanu gave Portsmouth
victory against Manchester City at Fratton Park. The forward
toe-poked in from eight yards after making the most of Glen
Johnson's run and reverse ball.
Pompey took the lead when Pedro Mendes, who later went off with a
foot injury, fired in a stunner from 20 yards. City equalised
midway through the second half when Italian Bernardo Corradi headed
in Darius Vassell's cross from close range.
The game was an entertaining spectacle although some of the gloss
was taken off when Portuguese midfielder Mendes was stretchered
away following a controversial tackle by Joey Barton. The incident
occured towards the end of the first half when the England
international caught the heel of Mendes and was shown a yellow
card.
The Pompey player writhed in agony on the pitch before he was
carried off and replaced by Lauren. Mendes, who was sidelined by
City's Ben Thatcher earlier in the season, opened the scoring at a
damp Fratton Park with a trademark sizzler from 20 yards.
A Matthew Taylor corner ended up falling to the feet of the
midfielder who smashed his effort, with a little swerve, into the
roof of the net. They could have had a hatful of goals in the first
half with Lomana LuaLua twice forcing Andreas Isaksson into palming
away while Micah Richards almost scored an own goal when the
Portsmouth forward fizzed a ball across goal.
City were largely on the backfoot, although Corradi forced David
James into making a fantastic save from his point-blank header. The
loss of Mendes seemed to unsettle Pompey in the middle of the park
and after the break City exploited that weakness. The pace of
Vassell proved to the home side's undoing after the hour. The
former Villa player broke on the right and delivered a beautifully
measured cross for Corradi to head in.
The game seemed to be swinging the way of City, but Pompey boss
Harry Redknapp's tactical substitution that saw Andy Cole replaced
by Kanu, swung the match back in the way of the home side.
The Nigerian had only been on the pitch for 10 mintes but was alert
enough to latch on to Johnson's clever reverse and poke in what
turned out to be the winner.
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Portsmouth boss Harry Reknapp on Joey Barton's
challenge on Pedro Mendes: "You get a yellow for that and Andy Cole
gets a yellow for not walking to the referee quickly enough. "If
you tell me both those incidents are worth the same punishment I'm
a Dutchman. "When he went off it was a turning point. It looks like
a badly gashed Achilles but we hope it's not too bad."
Manchester City boss on the same incident:
"I've only seen it once in real play. I didn't see the incident
itself, I looked back and he was lying down. I don't know how he
got there," he said. "We've not talked about it. I take it for
granted it was unintentional."
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Portsmouth: James, Johnson, Pamarot, Campbell, Traore (Kranjcar
71), O'Neil, Davis, Pedro Mendes (Lauren 44), Taylor, Cole (Kanu
71), LuaLua.
Subs Not Used: Ashdown, Douala.
Booked: Cole, Pamarot, Kanu.
Goals: Pedro Mendes 5, Kanu 81.
Man City: Isaksson, Richards, Dunne, Distin, Jihai (Samaras 87),
Barton, Ireland (Beasley 61), Dabo, Ball, Corradi, Vassell (Miller
79).
Subs Not Used: Hart, Hamann.
Booked: Dabo, Barton, Corradi.
Goals: Corradi 62.
