Match Report

Portsmouth 2 - 3 Bolton

12 September 2009 Cahill breaks Pompey hearts

Defender nods home in the dying minutes to grab a crucial three points

A late header from Gary Cahill secured a 3-2 win for Bolton against lowly Portsmouth, in an entertaining game at Fratton Park.

Pompey remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League and will feel aggrieved that they come away with nothing after an end-to-end match.

Both teams started the day without a point on the board and there were a number of nervy moments throughout, but it was the visitors who took the lead through Israeli midfielder Tamir Cohen.

Gretar Steinsson fed the ball through after the ever-willing Kevin Davies won a header from a ball forward and Cohen ran through to smash the ball past David James and into the roof of the net.

Fightback

Pompey came back and enjoyed a good spell of possession before they were rewarded with a fine header by Younes Kaboul. The big defender leapt high from a corner and nodded low past the despairing Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Then the talking point of the match came four minutes before the half-time break. Nadir Belhadj dallied on the ball and Kevin Davies broke into the penalty area only to be brought down by Tal Ben-Haim.

Referee Chris Foy pointed to the spot, although Ben-Haim looked to get a slight touch on the ball.

Matthew Taylor stepped up to send James the wrong way and score against his old club with a coolly taken penalty.

Tempo

The tempo continued after the break and both teams had the chance to score, but it was Kevin Prince-Boateng on his Pompey debut who scored the equaliser.

The ball came into the box and Jamie O'Hara had a shot charged down only for the ball to fall to Boateng who finished coolly through a crowd of players into the bottom corner.

With half an hour to go, both managers could sense a victory and Gary Megson threw on Croatian striker Ivan Klasnic in a bid to snatch the three points.

But it was centre-half Cahill who got the decisive goal with only minutes remaining on the clock.

The long throw came in from Jlloyd Samuel and after a number of headers to and fro, the defender rose to nod past the despairing James and into the back of the net.

The Fratton Park crowd was stunned in the dying seconds after a game that could have gone either way slipped from their grasp, and they have still yet to get a point on the board.

Portsmouth	Team Statistics	Bolton Wanderers
2	Goals	3
1	1st Half Goals	2
3	Shots on Target	5
12	Shots off Target	7
7	Blocked Shots	4
7	Corners	5
17	Fouls	16
3	Offsides	1
2	Yellow Cards	0
0	Red Cards	0
78	Passing Success	63.4
13	Tackles	26
69.2	Tackles Success	80.8
63.8	Possession	36.2
56.1	Territorial Advantage	43.9

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