Pompey entertained Wigan today as the Premiership returned after the International break. The break didn’t disrupt us at all as we marched on with a 1-0 win.
Benjani scoring the winner with his superb effort from the edge of the area as we kept a fourth successive clean sheet as we moved to the top of the Premiership, for at least two hours anyway?
Having already seen Benjani caught offside (I’ve never knows anyone to be caught offside as much as Benji!) former Southampton forward Henri Camara would have the first sighter at goal, his effort would go over the bar however, much to the Pompey fans delight.
Glen Johnson, who has made an amazingly quick recovery from an injury that, seemed likely to see him miss this, and the next game at least would put in his first cross on three minutes, sadly this would go straight out of play.
Former Pompey stalwart Arjan De Zeeuw would have to block Benjani’s first effort at goal of the game, this came from the left hand side from 20-yards.
Ecuadorian winger Antonio Valencia would send in a couple of crosses, the second of which needed a Linvoy Primus headed clearance.
Valencia would then have an effort at goal himself, his 15th minute strike safely caught by David James.
Five minutes later Camara would have another effort at goal, from a similar distance to his first, but Sol Campbell would clear this to safety.
A fairly disappointing 45 minutes, but another 45 minutes of play in which a Pompey still hadn’t conceded a goal would end as it started with Benjani again being caught offside?
The second half started with Pompey looking to step up the pressure and in the 49th minute a goal the fans had been craving arrived. Benjani with his second goal in as many games, and his second of the season would find the bottom corner from the edge of the area with a fine right-footed strike, following Sol Campbell’s header forward. The crowd went wild!
Pedro Mendes, making his return form the Ben Thatcher incident had his first strike at goal of the game, a decent 30-yarder needed to be saved by Chris Kirkland.
As the hour approached a Matthew Taylor corner would find the head of Kanu, who from 6-yards would head wide of Kirkland’s goal.
Shortly after Kanu’s miss Camara would have another effort at goal but his effort from the edge of the area would again fail to trouble James.
Dutch International Denny Landzaat would however test James, his 25-yard effort well saved by the Pompey keeper.
Shortly after being fouled by Fitz Hall (another former Southampton man) Kanu would be replaced by the returning Lomana LuaLua for his first involvement of the season after an ankle injury picked up in pre-season.
With time running out Kirkland would parry LuaLua’s right-footed effort, from all of 20-yard.
Seconds later as play moved to the other end James had to be at his best to tip an effort from Valencia around the post for a corner. From the resulting corner James saved from Paul Scharner’s header.
In injury time the match could have been wrapped up but LuaLua, following his own good work had his close range effort saved by Kirkland. But it didn’t matter the whistle was met with much joy by the home fans.
Maybe not the greatest of games, although at the same time full of enough incident, but yet another win, and yet another clean sheet. In over six hours of play we are yet to concede a goal. I knew that a clean sheet would see us win once again, and this proved to be the case.
PLAY UP POMPEY!
Goals
Pompey – Benjani 49
Wigan –
David James
Glen Johnson
Linvoy Primus
Sol Campbell
Dejan Stefanovic (Noe Pamarot 66)
Gary O’Neil
Sean Davis
Pedro Mendes (David Thompson 86)
Matty Taylor
Benjani
Kanu (Lomana LuaLua 76)
Substitutes Not Used
Dean Kiely
Ognjen Koroman
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