We have to win today. If we can’t beat a side like Portsmouth at home, then we definitely can’t consider ourselves top ten material. I looked at a suggested back four when I got back from my work’s Christmas party last night and with Da Silva and McCartney in it, it looked a lot stronger than the rumours had been suggesting. Just as long as they’re ten times tighter than in the first half on Sunday when they made Zamora look like a killer finisher, something the Fulham fans certainly hadn’t noticed before. I’d love to see Noble come on in the later stages as I’m sure he could score. His confidence must be sky high and we should strike the iron while it’s hot. I see we’re supposed to be after Fenerbahce’s striker Kazim-Richards. I thought he was very impressive for Turkey in Euro 2008 and he’d be a great buy, though maybe we’d better get the details of what went on in that hotel room before we swoop. Match prediction, 3-1 to us.

When the team news came through, I was pleased to see the back four was as I’d hoped and though I like Steed, I wasn’t sorry to see Campbell in there as with him Bent and Jones it was clear we meant to attack from the off. I got the match on Radio Newcastle and awaited developments.

Our fans were coming across the faltering airwaves loud and clear while rows of empty seats gaped in front of the one hundred Pompey fans who’d made the trip. They were playing 4-1-4-1 with the ever-dangerous Kanu upfront and not surprisingly we did most of the early pressing winning a couple of corners. After fifteen minutes though it all sounded flat and Portsmouth stifling tactics were paying off. My attention was definitely on the drift till we went one-up nearly ten minutes later when Bent scored from close range after good build-up play by Henderson and Reid. Henderson twice went close as we tried to capitalize on our lead while Cana collected another yellow card and McCartney joined him a short while later. Gary Bennett was purring about Nos, who was apparently pulling out all sorts of trickery. By the break there’d been virtually no mention of Portsmouth as an attacking force but at 1-0 things were still looking a bit too close for comfort.

Portsmouth got their first corners of the match shortly after the restart and the mournful Pompey chimes were audible as we were on the backfoot for the first ten minutes or so. Nos continued to make storming runs down the right and he even blasted an effort over as the hour-mark approached. The crowd went wild. Jones then swivelled and shot just wide and things were sounding brighter. The crowd was announced - 37,578. Not bad with Villa coming up on Tuesday. With fifteen minutes left we seemed to be losing it and I wasn’t feeling too comfortable. Then I heard Darryl Murphy was coming on and I felt even less comfortable. Kaboul and Bent were yellow carded for a bit of pushing and shoving. I wondered how Kaboul was feeling about choosing them instead of us.

Reid hit the bar with a great free-kick. Papa Bouba Diop, who must have the Premier’s best name, came on with ten minutes left and Gary Bennett said, “He’s a big unit, inne?” Murphy finally came on for Jones with just over five minutes to go and it was getting to be yet another nail-biter. McCartney made a great last-ditch tackle to keep it 1-0 and Kaboul hit a good chance straight at Fulop before Steed came on for Bent. Cue ecstatic applause. There were four minutes of added time, of course, as Portsmouth continued to sound dangerous. I couldn’t sit down any longer and almost immediately from a corner Kaboul (who else?) stabbed the equalizer home and was promptly red-carded for leaping over the advertising hoardings and ripping his shirt off. The boos were echoing round the ground as it ended 1-1 and this was a mighty sickening result as we’d somehow managed to let this one go.

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