Last updated at 12:17, Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Carlisle United 1 Portsmouth 3: Paul Hart, Portsmouth’s besieged boss, could fill a shopping trolley with the number of bags he is carrying under his eyes just now.

Kevan Hurst

For one night, a complicated but ultimately convincing victory over Carlisle United allowed the Premier League’s most weighed-down manager to lighten his load.

Relief wasn’t a word the Pompey manager threw around in his post-match press briefing, but it was scored right across his face when he sat down in Brunton Park’s media room, and it was patently running through every inch of his 56-year-old body when he was celebrating each of the three goals which allowed the top-flight’s bottom team to swerve a cup embarrassment.

This was a rare chance for Cumbrians to peer into the manic, pressure-heavy existence of a manager who finds himself at the wrong end of the world’s most showbiz league. “There’s nothing like winning. It doesn’t half make you feel better,” said Hart, after Portsmouth’s trio of goals had seen them recover from the early jolt of Ian Harte’s third-minute opener for United.

Whether the attacking speed that delivered victory for Pompey last night will yield similar results in the Premier League is another matter. Last night, it was the principle reason they were able to see off a sprightly and persistent challenge from Greg Abbott’s League One team, who went after their visitors’ vulnerabilities with impressive appetite.

When Harte’s spot-kick muffled the Pompey chimes after a storming Carlisle start, you wondered if Hart had blundered by sparing the likes of David James, Kanu and Michael Brown from front-line battle last night. The former, Portsmouth’s most high-profile and important player, was left at home, while the other two were able to take the field in the second half once Aruna Dindane, Danny Webber and Anthony Vanden Borre had found the home net to scribble a possible giantkilling off the script, and – according to some reports – prevent the boardroom blade from falling onto Hart’s neck.

On Carlisle’s own agenda, pre-match, was a need to take a more coherent, competitive approach into their play than was witnessed in the league at Oldham three days earlier. Against highly-ranked opposition, they did not disappoint. Only a few defensive lapses gave Abbott reason to censure his troops. Otherwise, they set Portsmouth some serious, competitive demands which need only hearten their manager at the end of United’s longest run in the league cup for 34 years (a stat which never seems to lose its impact on repetition).

Taking an early initiative has been beyond Carlisle in their last couple of games, but not here. Their start to the game was lifted straight from the giantkilling handbook. There was a decent glance from Richard Offiong, a run of considerable strength from Joe Anyinsah, a startled foul from Aaron Mokoena as the United man shaped to shoot, and the most basic of penalty decisions for referee Neil Swarbrick.

Having botched the other major call needed at this point – to dismiss Mokoena for denying Anyinsah a clear goalscoring opportunity – Mr Swarbrick and the rest of us watched Harte bury the spot-kick past Asmir Begovic, James’ unheralded replacement. The tie was alight.

As, in the game’s infant stages, were United, who forced a corner with another early surge and looked capable of bashing some more holes in Pompey’s nervous back line and their three-man midfield, with Anyinsah in particular unsettling Mokoena and the recalled Tom Taiwo adding his youthful bite to the central disputes.

Eventually and predictably, however, Hart’s team stirred. One lightning move saw John Utaka shoot just over from Hassan Yebda’s pass, before Lenny Pidgeley pawed away a Utaka cross and Peter Murphy got in the way of a Yebda screamer.

United were not without their own advances, as Kevan Hurst began to bend a stream of right-wing crosses into enemy territory, but all Carlisle’s early promise was zapped in the 26th minute, when a long Begovic free-kick caught the Cumbrian rearguard napping, allowing Utaka to glide towards goal, round Pidgeley and feed the Ivorian debutant Dindane, who slotted home with ease.

The pace of Dindane, Webber, Utaka and co was now taking the visitors into dangerous places. From a half-cleared corner, Utaka drew a fine save from Pidgeley, but the Blues were breached again soon after, when Dindane’s patience on the left allowed Yebda to float over a fine cross, which Webber glanced home after finding excessive space between Carlisle’s defenders. Up flashed the kind of Premier League ruthlessness Abbott must have feared. It so nearly appeared again twice before the break, first when Vanden Borre picked out Dindane, only for the striker to overhit his chipped shot, and then when Utaka fed the raiding Webber, who was valiantly denied on the line by Danny Livesey.

Even now, however, there was no sense that the match was dead – partly due to Portsmouth’s failure to appear defensively watertight, and partly down to Carlisle’s own persistence. Harte and Livesey went close before the break, and in the first 10 minutes of the second half they had two opportunities which might have spun the game.

First, Murphy challenged for a Harte free-kick, saw the ball drop onto his right foot and pulled a highly makeable chance wide. Then Anyinsah put a header off target after jumping to meet an outswinging Hurst corner.

Portsmouth’s response? To make another rapier thrust and take the clinching goal. A press down the right saw Yebda flick the ball inside for the impressive Dindane, as Livesey opted to jockey the striker rather than lunge to reach the ball first. In a flash, Dindane cut the ball back, and the arriving Vanden Borre ended the argument with a firm, poked finish.

Abbott flung on Marc Bridge-Wilkinson, Richard Keogh and Scott Dobie in a bid to salvage the tie – along with a tactical switch to a three-man defence – and some encouragement could be taken from the contribution of Dobie, who won a free-kick which Harte whipped just wide, then showed neat footwork to set up Anyinsah for a saved shot, and then revealed solid strength to enable him to spin and shoot just off-target.

But by the time Keogh steamed onto a deep Hurst cross and rattled the post in the 89th minute, the contest was over. Still, credit to United for their refusal to accept their fate even at this stage. Their defiance showed up again in injury time, when the rubber-legged Kanu set up his fellow sub Frederic Piquionne, only for Pidgeley to make an excellent one-handed parry, and it’s a quality Abbott could do with harnessing again when his team resume league duties against Southampton.

“The league is our bread and butter and the pressure will be back on,” acknowledged Carlisle’s manager, for whom this Carling Cup run has been diverting fun but has minimal bearing on the weekly business of gathering points. Hart, who lugs his troubles back to Fratton Park for an engagement with Everton in three days’ time, would doubtless agree.

LENNY PIDGELEY Made some alert saves and didn’t receive enough protection for Pompey’s goals.

DAVID RAVEN Did his best to contain visitors’ left-sided threat, and got forward when he could.

IAN HARTE Tucked away penalty with aplomb and showed up well against fleet-footed opponents.

DANNY LIVESEY Double centurion was Up against it with Portsmouth’s dangerous frontmen, who breached United three times.

PETER MURPHY His usual commitment but not at his best against top-flight frontmen.

PAUL THIRLWELL Decent contribution in midfield battle, steady in the tackle and in possession.

TOM TAIWO Welcome return to the starting line-up, full of his usual aggression if distribution not always accurate.

MATTY ROBSON Did his best to make something happen down the left, with mixed results.

KEVAN HURST Saw plenty of the ball and put some dangerous crosses into the Pompey box.

JOE ANYINSAH Pace and strength earned Carlisle their early penalty, and he always looked sharp against Pompey’s tough centre-halves.

RICHARD OFFIONG Dangerous in spurts but United need a more consistent threat from their new signing.

Subs: Marc Bridge-Wilkinson (for Murphy, 73) – Tried to urge Blues forward; Richard Keogh (for Livesey, 73) – Welcome return and close to a goal; Scott Dobie (for Taiwo, 77) – Some encouraging efforts. Not used: Adam Collin, Evan Horwood, Gavin Rothery, Gary Madine.
Goal: Harte 3 (pen)

PORTSMOUTH: Begovic, Vanden Borre, Belhadj, Kaboul, Mokoena, Mullins, Utaka, Yebda (Brown 77), Basinas, Dindane (Kanu 67), Webber (Piquionne 87). Not used: Ashdown, Mahoto, Sowah.
Goals: Dindane 26, Webber 32, Vanden Borre 63

Ref: Neil Swarbrick (Lancashire)
Crowd: 7,032

First published at 11:35, Wednesday, 23 September 2009
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk