Draw secures Premiership safety for Pompey
Portsmouth 1 Fulham 1
Portsmouth secured Premiership safety with Nigerian striker Aiyegbeni Yakubu’s sixth goal in seven games.
But the home side had to endure a tense last few minutes in which Fulham substitute Brian McBride struck a spectacular equaliser and then missed a sitter.
Harry Redknapp’s team were celebrating at the end of another sunny south coast day after they collected their 17th point from the last 21 available to extend an unbeaten run to seven matches – five of them victories.
Yet it could have been a severe dose of ant-climax at Fratton Park after Yakubu pounced on an error by Fulham’s Dutch ‘keeper Edwin van der Sar to hit the ball home for his 14th goal of the season 10 minutes from time.
Steve Stone had cleverly given Matt Taylor the chance to make the telling cross with a clever chip into the area.
Few would have anticipated American McBride’s equaliser which was hammered home with his left foot from all of 30 yards, but from no more than eight he failed to convert the impressive Junichi Inamoto’s cross with the goal gaping in stoppage time.
Much relief was the order of the day but it had been a strident, absorbing match with Fulham getting to grips with their determined hosts in the second half.
Pompey could have had it wrapped up by half-time but Lomana LuaLua and Yakubu both spurned glorious chances before the on-loan Newcastle raider struck the outside of a post.
The pair laced into Fulham’s stretched defence in a way that Luis Boa Morte could only have dreamed about at the other end.
Although Sean Davis and Inamoto did their best to offer the Portuguese some support he was too often left isolated in a one-striker system.
Hard-running Pompey, with Russian Alexei Smertin a marvellous influence directing midfield traffic with twinkling footwork on his 29th birthday, closed down their rivals with unstinting industry – and still found time to offer a considerable forward threat.
Yakubu’s first big opportunity came in the 17th minute when LuaLua fashioned a perfect cross from the right.
The Nigerian leapt head and shoulders above all challengers but thrust his header over the crossbar.
LuaLua, the man Pompey are desperate to sign permanently after the end of his loan from Newcastle, must have seen the goal big and inviting when pulling down a long ball eight yards out 15 minutes later.
But he swept it across goal and beyond the far post as van der Sar loomed large at him.
The ‘keeper would have needed every inch of his giant frame though had LuaLua’s shot from the right been an inch closer three minutes later.
The angle was at best unlikely in any case but the ball still smacked against the outside of the near post before bouncing away.
Half-time could not come too quickly for Chris Coleman’s side who still boast an outside chance of qualifying for Europe.
As it was they were somewhat lucky that Sylvain Legwinski and Carlos Bocanegra were only booked by referee Steve Dunn for calculated fouls – Bocanegra’s blatant obstruction stopping LuaLua bursting through the middle.
Even so, the need for greater physical commitment had clearly been discussed in the Fulham dressing room at half-time and within 30 seconds of the restart they won a series of 50-50 tackles to let Inamoto set up Davis whose shot rattled the underside of the bar.
Inamoto had to pull LuaLua’s shirt halfway off his back to prevent him breaking clear again and battle was really joined when Yakubu and Smertin tested van der Sar before Legwinski muscled his way through at the other end only to scoop his shot over.
If Fulham had performed like this in the first half they might have run away with the game.
Inamoto shot just wide after a Steed Malbranque free-kick was deflected over the Pompey bar when it could have gone anywhere.
And it needed a brave block on the hard-working Japanese player by debutant teenage Portsmouth substitute Richard Duffy, replacement for the injured Linvoy Primus, to stop him breaking the deadlock.
Pompey stuck to their task though and it looked the perfect finish for them when Yakubu smuggled the ball home after van der Sar’s 80th minute blunder.
But McBride, who had replaced defender Martin Djetou, had the final word with a thundering shot and then somehow failed to convert a a tap-in at the right at the death.
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