Reading 0 Portsmouth 2:Portsmouth cannot buy a goal at Fratton Park but away from its intense confines, they are liberated. They continue to have the best away record in the Premier League, together with Chelsea, after this comfortable win over a Reading team that played for 86 minutes with 10 men following the dismissal of Ibrahima Sonko for a professional foul.
"If we had been winning at home, we would be top of the league," said the Portsmouth manager, Harry Redknapp, reflecting on his team having gone six Premier League matches at Fratton Park without a goal. "We've found it hard to open teams up. But we have pace and you saw from our second goal from John Utaka today that we're dangerous on the break.
"It would be lovely if we could achieve a European finish but if we don't, these are still the best times Portsmouth have had since Nelson left."
Redknapp's grip on historical timings was the only thing that deserted him as his team took advantage of their superior numbers. "The sending-off ruins the game as a spectacle and it's the worst nightmare for Stevie," said Redknapp. "But Sonko was the last man and I thought he had to go."
The Senegalese defender allowed Benjani to muscle in behind him before tripping the forward inside the area. Coppell, the Reading manager, argued that Ivar Ingimarsson might have been in close enough attendance to spare Sonko the red card but admitted he feared the worst. Niko Kranjcar drove the kick against the foot of Marcus Hahnemann's right-hand post but Reading's respite was temporary.
Hahnemann's attempt to collect Sulley Muntari's free-kick unravelled in darkly comic fashion, the ball squirting from his grasp and, when Pape Bouba Diop headed goalwards, it struck Kalifa Cisse and Sol Campbell bundled home.
Coppell raged uncharacteristically on the touchline and, quite wrongly, the home support made the referee, Mike Dean, their scapegoat. He could have reduced Reading to nine men when Graeme Murty, carrying a yellow card for a cynical foul on Utaka, tripped Sylvain Distin during a dangerous counter.
Republic of Ireland international Kevin Doyle had Reading's best chance in the 42nd minute - David James brushed his shot past the far post - but Portsmouth were comfortable. Diop fluffed a free header and Benjani nodded against the bar before Utaka made the game safe.
"John is as quick as lightning," said Redknapp, after watching him make up five yards on Nicky Shorey to reach a long ball forward from Glen Johnson. Once inside the area, Utaka ran around Hahnemann and tapped home.
Coppell was phlegmatic and his frustration only showed when Sunderland's failed £2.5 million bid for Republic of Ireland international Stephen Hunt was mentioned.
"There has been a bid but there is no way that Stephen Hunt will be leaving this club at this moment in time. He is typical of what we are about. He is a free transfer from Brentford, someone that has something to prove on a game-by-game basis and as far as I am concerned has been one of our key players for 18 months," said Coppell.
"I would like to go back to the old way of doing business where you phone people up and that verbal communication is the end. Their making the bid public didn't do me any favours."
