It’s an old cliché but at half time if this had been a boxing match the contest would have been stopped. Unfortunately although Sunderland dominated Portsmouth at the SOL this afternoon they can only blame themselves in throwing away all three points. A hatful of missed chances combined with some dodgy defending saw Tony Adams' men steal the game 2-1.

On the back of two straight away defeats it was no surprise to see changes in the starting eleven again. However the biggest surprises were the omissions of Kenwyne Jones and Pascal Chimbonda from the squad altogether. The injury to Craig Gordon meant Marton Fulop retained his place in goal behind a back four of Bardo, Nos, Ferdinand and Collins. Kieran Richardson started in the centre of midfield alongside Dean Whitehead with Steed Malbranque and Andy Reid occupying the wings. Daryl Murphy partnered Cisse up front.

Sunderland started in great fashion and took the lead inside five minutes. Djibril Cisse latched onto Andy Reid’s clever through ball before out-muscling and outpacing Sol Campbell before coolly slotting past David James. It was a great goal and one of the earliest I can remember in recent times.

The Lads continued to dominate and Kieran Richardson almost made it two when his deflected shot span past the helpless James only to ricochet off the post and away to safety. Sunderland were on fire with Malbranque, Reid and Richardson involved in some great flowing moves.

Cisse almost got his second when he headed Malbranque's cross goalwards but James thwarted him with a great diving save. The corner came to nothing but Sunderland didn’t let up and kept Pompey on the back foot. Just before half time Cisse had another great chance when he was played in by Richardson. Cisse again broke clear of his defender but his outside of the boot shot was again saved well by James.

The Lads ended the first half one up but it could and should have been three or four. At half time Keano made a change with Murphy making way for El Hadji Diouf. We were made to pay for the missed chances early in the second half when Portsmouth equalised. Dean Whitehead, who otherwise had a good game, surrendered possession deep in our half. The ball eventually came to Belhadj in acres of space who fired a left foot shot past Fulop from about 20 yards.

It was a real sucker punch for us considering how well we played in the first half but we still had chances to win the game in the second. Cisse was causing all sorts of problems for the Portsmouth centre halves and had the ball in the net with twenty minutes to go but it was ruled out for offside. Reid had looped a cross into the box which Cisse glanced into the bottom corner but judging by the reactions of our players the decision to rule it out was correct.

With ten minutes to go the game changed when Keane made his final two substitutions. The threatening pair of Malbranque and Reid were replaced by the anonymous Grant Leadbitter and clumsy David Healy. The Northern Ireland striker almost gifted Portsmouth a second within minutes of being on the pitch. He dwelt on the ball too long before losing it to Defoe but fortunately for him Ferdinand recovered possession.

With a game we should have comfortably won heading for a stalemate I started to rue our missed chances. Then Glen Johnson drew Diouf into a stupid tackle in our area and we were done for. A stonewall penalty which Defoe netted easily to seal an unjust victory for Pompey.

Final Score – Sunderland 1 Portsmouth 2

ALS Man of the Match - Kieran Richardson

Aidan Crowe

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