Portsmouth v Aston Villa - as it happened

Afternoon Rarely in these days of Premier League parity do you come across a fixture in which any outcome is truly unthinkable but it's fair to say that one side will be heavily favoured this afternoon. One of these two teams, after all, is an FA Cup finalist, the other limped out meekly in the last four. And so it is that Portsmouth, with one Wembley date left in them this season, host the team who might have been looking forward to the same appointment, were it not for dodgy Wembley surfaces, officials and defending. In reality of course, Pompey are the underdogs, a team with little reason to pursue victory this afternoon: relegation has been confirmed and even 19th place is effectively, if not mathematically out of reach. Winning, presumably, would just mean more bonuses to pay. But Pompey have rarely been ones to roll over, especially at home, and especially when everyone expects them to. And while Villa remain hopeful of a Europa League place - indeed their prospects may wind up hinging on the outcome of Portsmouth's request to be allowed to apply late for a Uefa club licence - they are not exactly enjoying their best form at the moment. Anyway, below are a collection of random match pointers compiled for our squad sheets by my colleague Sachin Nakrani. I'll be back in a tick with team news and the like. Match pointers • Portsmouth have failed to score in their last three Premier League meetings with Aston Villa • Villa have kept six clean sheets in their last nine top-flight away matches, though the other three saw them concede a total of 11 goals • On this day in 1930 Portsmouth lost 2-1 at home to Villa in the old First Division • Villa have the highest cross completion rate (23.6%) in the division this season • Portsmouth are the first side to reach the final of the FA Cup and also be relegated since Middlesbrough in 1997 Team news Martin O'Neill sticks with the same Aston Villa team that drew 2-2 with Everton on Wednesday, but there are changes for Portsmouth, with the 18-year-old youth team defender Leonard Sowah making his first senior start and all of David James, Aaron Mokoena, Hassan Yebda, Kanu and Kevin Prince Boateng back in the side too. Portsmouth: James, Vanden Borre, Mokoena, Wilson, Sowah, Diop, Yebda, Brown, Boateng, Kanu, Utaka. Subs: Ashdown, Smith, Pack, Ward, Ritchie, Ciftci. Aston Villa: Friedel, Cuellar, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Ashley Young, Milner, Petrov, Downing, Carew, Agbonlahor. Subs: Guzan, Sidwell, Delfouneso, Heskey, Reo-Coker, Beye, Clark. Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire) Eyjafjallajökull I threw Boateng's name in on that team sheet as if it was a perfectly reasonable thing to expect to find there, but the truth is Pompey's (Kevin) Prince very nearly couldn't make it back for this game. Boateng was granted time off to see his family back in Germany after the FA Cup semi-final but following Iceland's volcanic eruption the midfielder wasn't able to fly back, and had to take a 12-hour train journey instead. Which got me to wondering - what's the best-ever excuse a player has had for missing a game? 1 min It took all of 12 seconds for Villa to take their first crack at Sowah, the ball being pinged straight out to Ashley Young on the right, where he got in behind the defender before losing the ball to Michael Brown. He hacked the ball wildly across his own area to Downing, whose shot was deflected behind at the back post. The corner came to nothing. 2 mins I'm going to be absolutely honest with you, if there's one thing I definitively won't miss about having Portsmouth in the Premier League, it's listening to John Portsmouth Football Club Westwood and that sodding bell. 4 mins Fantastic save from Friedel! Villa had been doing most of the early running but on pretty much Portsmouth's first venture out of their own half, the hosts nearly take the lead. It was a fine ball over from the right hand side that picked out Boateng lurking behind Cuellar at the back post. The midfielder could only just get his head to the ball first time, but the ball fell back at his feet and he rifled it across goal but Friedel was down like a bolt to parry. 6 mins Villa continue to work the ball down the right, Sowah's side, and this time it's Milner who swings a cross over from the right, but he puts too much on it. 7 mins A lot of empty seats at Fratton Park today, but those that are present are certainly making a fair old racket. 9 mins Now Cuellar skips down to the goalline on the right hand side, but again the final ball is disappointing after he jinks back into the area. GOAL! Portsmouth 1-0 Aston Villa (Brown, 10 mins) Kanu plays a throughball down the right channel for Vanden Borre to run onto, and he leaves Warnock on his backside as he cuts back from the goalline before playing the ball back to Boateng rushing into the area. The midfielder, however, steps over the ball and lets it run to Brown, who sidefoots it beautifully into the bottom corner from the edge of the box. 12 mins "1-0 to the Championship" bellow the delighted Portsmouth fans. It'll be interesting to see how many of the current team they can afford to keep in that division, of course ... 13 mins Villa looked a little shell-shocked by that goal for a couple of minutes, but Stewart Downing tries to get things going again as he wriggles free of a marker 20 yards out and pings a low shot towards the bottom-right corner of David James's net. It's decently struck but James is down sharply to smother. 15 mins What a let off for Portsmouth! Agbonlahor veered into the area after racing into space down the left before cutting the ball back to John Carew six yards out, only for the striker to slap his effort straight at David James. The keeper didn't really have time to react, but thankfully for him he didn't have to. GOAL! Portsmouth 1-1 Aston Villa (Carew, 16 mins) Well that didn't take long did it? Carew makes amends in double-quick time, beating the offside trap with the help of Sowah, who should have stepped up, to stride onto a long angled ball forward from Stephen Warnock and into an undefended penalty area. Once there he looked up, set himself and gave James no chance with a fierce effort to the keeper's right. 19 mins End-to-end stuff, I believe is the football parlance for what's going on here. After Brown's free-kick is half-cleared the ball is clipped back into Kanu, whose shot is blocked by Petrov, then the ball runs to Utaka, whose shot is deflected behind by Cuellar. Boateng's corner is cleared by Carew. 20 mins Villa hit the post! Young's cross from the right took a deflection off a Portsmouth defender, wrong-footing James but ricocheting away off the near post. 22 mins Not a vintage day for Premier League defending, this one. Entertaining stuff so far at Fratton Park, but not necessarily high on quality. 25 mins Kanu, 64, has done well to make it this long without a breather but now it's time for a sit down, as he receives treatment following an aerial challenge with James Collins. There may have been a clash of heads, but it doesn't look too serious. 27 mins Carew stretches out an absurdly-proportioned leg to rescue a cross from the right that was about to run out for a goal-kick on the far side. David James was chasing him, somewhat ill-advisedly, and had the ball run differently off the striker's heel might have found himself horribly out of position, but instead it bobbles gently straight to the goalkeeper. 29 mins Sky's stat box has just informed us that Portsmouth are yet to commit a single foul in this game. I suspect their figure for successful tackles is not much higher. 31 mins Villa haven't exactly been kicking lumps out of anyone themselves and in fact it is just their seventh foul, committed by Richard Dunne on Boateng, that gives Portsmouth a free-kick on the very edge of the visitors' box. Boateng himself takes the set piece, whipping in an unusual outswinging effort across goal that might just have crept in were it not for Friedel hurling himself to his right to stick a meaty paw in the way. Portsmouth win a corner, but it's easily cleared. 33 mins Wilson lumps away another Young cross from the right. Sowah has not covered himself in glory so far. Though frankly that sounds a rather inappropriate thing to do in front of this many people anyway. 35 mins Portsmouth finally do commit their first foul, and yes, it's Sowah who is penalised for a challenge on Young. Downing's free-kick loops meekly into the hands of James. 37 mins Oh dear. That was certainly another foul by Portsmouth and this one should have resulted in a penalty. The referee Lee Probert wasted no time reaching for his whistle as Agbonlahor went down under pressure from Vanden Borre in the area, but awards only a free-kick against the striker. Replays clearly show the Portsmouth player hooked Agbonlahor's arm before pulling him down. He's not getting a lot of joy with these decisions lately is he? 40 mins The crowd leap to their feet as John Utaka races clear, but the flag is up for offside and rightly so. PENALTY TO ASTON VILLA! This time Probert does point to the spot as Diop, having allowed Agbonlahor to steal the ball off him inside the area, sticks a boot out and clearly catches the Villa striker. PENALTY SAVED! Well, well, well. Carew's penalty was not an especially good one, struck powerfully but at chest height and far too close to David James, who still had to react smartly to palm it away. 43 mins Fabio Capello is watching today, apparently, and can now go home happy in the knowledge that he has at least one goalkeeper capable of saving a not-especially-good penalty. 45 mins We're going to have two minutes of injury time, and Portsmouth are going to have a corner. 45 mins (+1) The corner is played short to Wilson, but his attempted ball in is, well, not very good. And I think the flag may have been up anyway. Peepety-peep! Brown thuds a skiddy effort wide of Friedel's right-hand post and that's all she wrote for the first half. Footballing excuses "I couldn't think of any good excuses for a football a game," says Harry Barnett. "But I had a look online and found this on the BBC website, submitted by Nic from Wales: 'We once lost a game of football when our goalkeeper went off the field without telling anyone to go to the toilet. He was gone for 10 minutes before anyone realised. Meanwhile he was reading the paper without a care in the world.'" 46 mins We're off again, and David James has thrown on a fetching Portsmouth Football Club baseball cap. And while we're on the subject of Mr James ... "It's not an excuse for missing a game," says Ian Sexton. "But given that he's playing in this game, it would surely be remiss of this minute-by-minute not to mention David James's infamous claim that playing too much Playstation was to blame for his loss of form." 47 mins Villa win a corner on the left-hand side, but Downing's delivery is headed clear rather forcefully by Aaron Mokoena. 49 mins Villa seem to have made the decision to try their luck down the left after repeatedly attacking down the right in the first half and Downing puts in two crosses from that flank in the space of 30 seconds, but he puts too much force on them both times and fails to pick out anyone in the middle. 51 mins Credit where it's due for Sowah, who nicks the ball off Young's toes very tidily before sending Boateng rampaging off into the Villa half. His ball for Utaka is less successful, but as Villa break again down the right Sowah is there to dispossess Young again. 52 mins Young gets the message and drifts over to the left, dropping in behind Downing and taking a pass from his fellow winger before knocking an inviting ball over towards the back post, but there's nobody running on to it. 54 mins Certainly plenty of intent about Villa at the start of this half, as Milner steps across the edge of the D before walloping the ball through a forest of legs towards the bottom corner. James is down smartly to block his effort. 56 mins Another sharp stop from James, but not for the first time you feel that he shouldn't really have been given the chance to make the save. Young put in an absolutely perfect cross from the left for Agbonlahor, who was completely unmarked six yards out but directed his header far too close to Jame, and the keeper was just about able to smother the ball. 59 mins "I have a story that's not dissimilar to the one told at half time," notes Peter Corway. "A few years ago when I was playing Under-16s football (back when there was sand put in the 18-yard box if there was bad weather a few days beforehand). We were beating a team quite easily and they hadn't even taken a shot on our goal, so our goalkeeper decided to have a sit down and make sand castles to entertain himself. A quick-witted opposing player saw our goalkeeper sitting down in the sand and took a shot from the halfway line and scored. We put five goals past them in the end, so it didn't really matter, but we still never let him live it down." 60 mins You will be interested to know that James has now removed his cap. 61 mins Young tees up Milner for a drive from the edge of the area but James once again shows off the reflexes of a curiously-proportioned and uniquely talented cat to parry. He actually blocked the ball straight into the path of Agbonlahor 12 yards out but seeing as the striker a) was offside and b) managed to miss his shot anyway, it didn't really matter. 64 mins Portsmouth seem to have completely given up any ambitions they had to win this game. After all, to do that would require leaving their half. 66 mins Kanu comes off to be replaced by Tommy Smith, who comes complete with natty facemask after breaking his nose the other day. 67 mins First signs of life in a long time from Portsmouth, as first Yebda sees a shot charged down just outside the area, and then Diop clobbers one some distance over the bar from 30 yards out. 68 mins Now Boateng, who it must be said has not looked like a man who spent about half the past week on a train, chances his arm from a good 25 yards. His effort is at least on target, but also straight at Friedel. 71 mins "Apparently Sowah is the first player born after the Premier League began on 15 August 1992 to play in a Premier League side's first team," chirrups Simon Jenkins as Utaka has a little lie down. "Doesn't that make you feel past it?" Speak for yourself Simon, I've not given up on a top-flight debut yet. 72 mins Martin O'Neill decides the time is right to make his first change, sending on Emile Heskey in place of John Carew. 73 mins Another very tidy delivery from Young, who has approximately 0.2mm to work with down by the right goalline, but still somehow squeezes the ball across the six-yard box and onto the head of Downing at the back post, off which it ricochets harmlessly wide. 74 mins Tommy Smith pulls his stroppiest faces at the linesman after a goalkick is awarded when Dunne puts the ball behind for Villa, but they are wasted behind the protective mask. 76 mins Portsmouth are trying to play Villa on the break now and Boateng looks to have something going before losing control and bouncing into a small person-sized wall with 'Dunne' printed on the back of it. It was never a free-kick, but the crowd protest that it should have been anyway. 78 mins Brown winds up before launching a long-throw towards the corner of the six-yard box, where it is flicked on by Diop to Smith, who heads over. 79 mins Huge appeal from Villa as Petrov goes down as he moves past James inside the area. Replays show he trailed the leg and was clearly waiting to go down, but at the same time he did get contact. By the letter of the law it should be a penalty. 80 mins Substitutions for both teams, with Nathan Delfouneso on for Agbonlahor and Joel Ward on for Boateng. GOAL! Portsmouth 1-2 Aston Villa (Delfouneso, 82 mins) Well that worked out rather well didn't it? Ashley Young played a quick free-kick to Milner on the left while Portsmouth were still busy constructing a wall, and the midfielder's cross was flicked on by Heskey at the near post before his fellow substitute jabbed it home from about five yards out. 85 mins Villa move within six points of fourth placed Tottenham if they can hold onto this result, but it's hard to imagine them claiming that last Champions League berth given the form of the respective teams. Pompey's own substitute, Ward, leaps to get his head to a corner inside the box but the ball loops tamely to Friedel. 86 mins "I once helped run a Sunday afternoon pub football league in Bordeaux which was more pub than football," declares Robin Hazlehurst, arriving late to our footballing excuses riff. "One player didn't turn up to a match on the grounds that he didn't have a hangover. Which seemed like a pretty poor effort really." 88 mins Youth team graduate and noted Local Boy Matt Ritchie is on for Diop. He's played for the first team before, but this is his first appearance at Fratton Park. 90 mins The fourth official is indicating that we'll have at least another three minutes. 90 mins (+1) Fantastic reaction save from Friedel to deny Ward! Brown's corner from the left found the substitute, whose initial header was blocked straight down, but who found the ball quickly and let fly with a quick effort that was arrowing straight into the top corner, had the keeper not thrust a hand out. Peep! Peep! Peeep! And that's it from Fratton Park. Villa take the three points and keep their Europa League hopes up, Portsmouth ... well, Portsmouth will be happy to have given Sowah his full debut. Neither team was especially impressive, but it was entertaining and that's enough for me. Right, I'm off. Thanks for all your emails.