Portsmouth 0 - 1 West Ham United

The right result, if a nervy and frustrating one.  West Ham dominated the first 25 minutes, with Pompey coming back into it after the Noble penalty.  In the second half, Portsmouth went down to ten men after Norris was sent off.  From then on it was all West Ham with Robert Green not having too much to do, despite a late sequence of pressure from Portsmouth's Benjani.  However, from West Ham's perspective, that old bugaboo of poor finishing took the edge off of our momentum.  There were some horrendous misses by Faubert, Nolan and Noble in the second half.  Portsmouth were satisfied to defend deep, but West Ham were passing square balls rather than penetrating.  When they did, the offside flag was often up.  Noble was my man of the match; overall, he had a fabulous game.

The frustration comes from the fact that this was a chance to pump up our goal difference which we didn't take; unfortunately, Southampton did.  I'm sure we're desperately looking for a creative midfielder and a striker, and this performance did nothing but firmly underline our deficiencies in these areas.

While Sam did bring Faubert off for Lansbury late on, it seemed that the strategy was to hold the lead.  This was a dangerous tactic, and I am not a proponent of that for obvious reasons: it only takes a set piece success by the opposition and we're back to square one.  In fact, Benjani's late chances were very threatening, and one resulted in a handball which, amazingly the referee didn't give.   Futacs missed a golden opportunity late on too; frankly, West Ham were lucky to avoid another late goal against.  We drew the pressure on ourselves by not making the necessary changes earlier on.  One has the feeling we cheated fate today.  Certainly the benevolence of the referee today, while correct and brave, cannot be relied upon week in and out.  A lesser man would have buckled to the fan pressure and awarded a penalty late on, or perhaps sent Nolan off as an even up call.  How that referee is getting home tonight is one of life's great mysteries.  An armed escort, I shouldn't wonder.

Sam's inactivity on the sub's bench was interesting: neither Faye or Baldock were called into action, and only Lansbury was brought on late for Faubert.  Baldock was perhaps being penalized for his penalty miss (which seems overly harsh and not good man-management to me); and, fair enough, Faye is just back from injury. Why Carew was on the bench though, rather than Hall is a mystery to me.  

Still it is another away victory at a very hard venue against a team on a good run of form with the inspiration of a new manager.  It's nothing to grumble about, but only a fool wouldn't heed the warnings: we need more creativity and, yes, some more clinical fire-power in front of goal.  This game should have been killed off in the first half.

Paul