Tuncay helps Boro thrash Pompey
Tuncay Sanli’s goal was good enough to give Middlesbrough a 1-0 win away to Portsmouth as the home side failed to score at Fratton Park for the sixth straight Premier League match.Former Pompey favourite Gary O’Neil returned to haunt his old club by setting up Sanli’s 20th minute winner as Boro moved up the table and away from the relegation zone. Portsmouth pressed for an equaliser and almost got one after the break but Nwankwo Kanu hit the post from five yards out.
That left Pompey still searching for a goal in front of their own fans since September’s dramatic 7-4 defeat of Reading.
The south coast club started brightly but fell behind when England winger Stuart Downing found O’Neil, whose volleyed cross-shot from the far post was turned in by Sanli.
O’Neil and Robert Huth then both wasted chances to extend Boro’s lead.
Middlesbrough keeper Mark Schwarzer smothered an early Niko Kranjcar effort but from then on the Australia international was largely untroubled.
Just before half-time, Pompey’s Papa Bouba Diop skied a shot over the bar from eight yards out.
Pompey’s best chance came midway through the second-half when substitute Matthew Taylor, a half-time replacement for Hermann Hreidarsson, sent in a free-kick from the right only for Kanu to bang the ball against the post from close range.
Boro’s Korean striker Dong-Gook Lee then missed two good chances but Boro had done enough to earn a victory which put Portsmouth’s European ambitions into perspective.
Filed under Matchs
