Portsmouth 1 West Ham 1

West Ham had the better of the possession and the better of the goal scoring chances in the first half.

Most of the goal mouth action in the first half came in a frenetic three minute period half way through the half. In the 20th minute Nouble found himself clean through at goal and shot straight at Begovic in goal from eight yards. Diamanti was first to the rebound and shot from 10 yards forcing a good save from Begovic diving to his right.

Portsmouth immediately broke up field and Mokoena forced a good save from Green from the edge of the area, at the expense of a corner. From the corner Noble cleared the ball on the line from a Kaboul shot.

It was then West Ham's turn to hit Portsmouth on the break and within a minute Collison was clean through and forced a great fingertip save from Begovic with an effort from 10 yards.

Aside from that Diamanti had a couple of wild long range efforts, both of which flew well over the bar.


It took West Ham only seven minutes to grab the lead in the second half. Diamanti did well on the right wing to cross the ball to the far post where Matthew Upson managed to run in and bundle the ball home.

West Ham's goal seemed to spur Portsmouth into action and for the first time in the match they began to dominate the play. Wilson headed over from 5 yards from a corner. Boateng shot wide of the left hand post from 10 yards and Kaboul forced a save from a 7 yard header.

Portsmouth's pressure finally told. In the 76th minute Behrami shot over from just inside the Portsmouth penalty area. Begovic then lumped the ball up field and the ball found its way through to Webber who slotted the ball through Green's legs and into the back of the net from 13 yards. West Ham will argue that Tomkins was fouled in the build up, when an elbow in his face took him out. Tomkins was then forced to be replaced by Da Costa.

After the Portsmouth goal both sides had chances. Da Costa and Cole shot over from wide right in the penalty area for West Ham. For Portsmouth Webber shot just over from 7 yards and in the last minute of the match Utaka shot straight at Green from 20 yards.