Portsmouth - 4 (Zamperini 5. Prosinecki 38. Burchill pen. 63. Crouch 76.)
Crystal Palace - 2 (Rodger 11. Freedman 70.)

A good cross from Simon failed to find Clinton in the centre, as did a great cross from Dougie. We were then treated to the sight of a shot from outside the area, taken this time by Aki Riihilahti. Unfortunately it was just too easy a chance, and the keeper reacted well to stop the shot.

A corner to the home side saw Burchill hit a shot straight at Matt in goal before Peter Crouch had two shots at goal, and missed with both attempts. A good run by Courtney Pitt saw him beat a number of Palace players before firing his shot just wide of the mark, then Aki was well played in by a cross from Clinton, but his shot was blocked on the line.

Dean Austin then managed to stop an effort by the home side on our goal, but it cost him a yellow card, and by the look of the referee there was going to be a number of cards to come. This action unfortunately led to a free kick, and from that kick Robert Prosinecki hit the ball straight into the back of the net to give Pompey the lead once more.

As half time approached Crouch managed to get his head to a shot, but Matt just managed to hold on to the effort and the first period of play came to an end. It appeared that this was going to be yet another job for Steve Bruce, the man that along with the oranges seems to get the best out of the side in the second half.

A couple of crosses early in the second half showed Pompey that we were serious about getting another equaliser before Hayden Mullins was called on to head away a chance by Prosinecki. A corner to Palace saw a chance miss-hit by Tony Popovic. A header then to Dougie somehow managed to stay out of the net before calamity hit Palace when Jovan Kirovski brought down Pitt, and for the second match in a row Matt was left to defend a penalty. Obviously Matt is not too good at this, as the only penalty that has missed of late was one that was sent wide, but in fairness to a keeper they are almost impossible to stop, and the chance was duly converted by Burchill and we were suddenly 3-1 down.

A double substitution was made for Palace, with Andrejs Rubins and Tommy Black coming on for Craig Harrison and Jamie Smith, and it was Andrejs that supplied the cross that pulled one back for Palace. His cross sailed in, Clinton dodged the ball, leaving it for a well placed Dougie to simply tap the ball home past a beaten keeper. We were now back on track at only one goal down.

The hope did not last for long though, as within the next five minutes a corner to the home side resulted in Crouch out-jumping the defence and heading the ball home. It was now 4-2, and there was to be no way back for a now deflated Palace side.

Despite the fact that there was almost a quarter of an hour to play this really only left time for Tommy to somehow contrive to get himself booked twice within the space of a couple of minutes, and he was duly sent off much to the amusement of the home fans, and the consternation of the visitors.

Just how Steve is going to shore up the defence remains to be seen, but it is fairly obvious by now that this must be a top priority if the Club are not going to once again get sucked into a relegation fight.

Colin Pryce

Portsmouth: Sasa Ilic, Jason Crowe, Scott Hiley, Alessandro Zamperini (Lewis Buxton 45), Courtney Pitt, Kevin Harper, Neil Barrett, Nigel Quashie (Gary O'Neil 73), Robert Prosinecki (Lee Bradbury 82), Mark Burchill, Peter Crouch.

Substitutes not used: Chris Tardif, Jamie Vincent.

Crystal Palace: Matt Clarke, Dean Austin, Tony Popovic, Craig Harrison (Tommy Black 68), Jamie Smith (Andrejs Rubins 68), Hayden Mullins, Simon Rodger (Steve Kabba 90), Aki Riihilahti, Jovan Kirovski, Clinton Morrison, Dougie Freedman.

Substitutes not used: Alex Kolinko, Steve Thomson.

Attendance: 18,149

Referee: Mr D Elleray (Harrow-on-the-Hill)