Portsmouth 2, Sunderland 1

Jan 25 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

The Albanian international is the heartbeat of the side and more is needed from the former Marseille man, who will surely benefit from the return of Cattermole who is sensibly being eased back into first team action after more than three months on the sidelines. At least the Wearsiders still have Darren Bent. The England international is feeding off scraps at the moment and was anonymous for long periods against Portsmouth, but he clinically took the only chance that came his way, nipping in front of his marker to sweetly volley home a flick on from Michael Turner to give the visitors the lead after a scrappy start to the contest.

That should have been Sunderland’s foothold in the tie, but they allowed an equally disjointed Portsmouth to work their way back into the game and Kieran Richardson and Paulo Da Silva were fortunate not to give away a penalty when they combined to halt Kevin-Prince Boateng progress in the area after Richardson had made a mess of a clearance. That was Portsmouth’s first real attack of the game, yet they drew level in farcical circumstances, John Utaka somehow muscling Phil Bardsley off the ball before sending a weak header towards goal which somehow caught Craig Gordon out of position and trickled across the line.

Utaka had another header loop on to the roof of the net after Gordon had missed a punch moments before the break before he scored Portsmouth’s winner, running unmolested on to Younes Kaboul’s clearing header through the middle of the Sunderland defence before slotting past Gordon. Portsmouth should have added to their lead. Boateng was kept out by an excellent save from Gordon, before firing narrowly wide after Utaka had pulled a cross too deep, but Sunderland did at least rally at the death.

Bent was kept out by a decent save from Asmir Begovic with a well-struck free-kick and from the resulting corner, Kaboul just about managed to scramble a David Healy effort off the line. Too little too late from the Black Cats.