ENGLISH FA CUP FINAL: Portsmouth 1 Cardiff City 0: SELDOM HAS so much goodwill been shown to an FA Cup final. The public wanted to dote on this one, to believe there could be drama without the presence of a Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Cesc Fabregas or Fernando Torres in the cast.

To some extent the nation got its way as Cardiff, from the Championship, were close to being a match for Portsmouth in certain respects.

By the end, all the same, the truth was apparent that key fixtures do not undergo a change of identity merely because the participants have altered. In all but two of the last 15 FA Cup finals the losers have failed to score.

Harry Redknapp would have had no need to peek at the statistics. Affable and entertaining as the Portsmouth manager can be, his side already had steeliness at its core.

It was his opposite number, Dave Jones, who named two strikers in his line-up. There would be no such extravagance for the Premier League club, who rightly stuck to their normal 4-1-4-1 formation.

Superior ability was nearly guaranteed to take its toll so long as crass mistakes were avoided. Redknapp, in any case, was under a weighty obligation not to misuse this rare opportunity.

His managerial career at last bears the distinction of a trophy but, more importantly, Portsmouth have a major prize for the first time since they were league champions 58 years ago. It is a feat to please any outsider who has experienced the passion and excitement at Fratton Park that is wildly out of proportion to a ground with a capacity of some 20,000.

Those spectators have a team that is worth those roars, yet it rests more on know-how than exuberance. That could be seen again and again on Saturday. When, for instance, Sol Campbell's lack of pace might have been exposed in a first-half incident the even older goalkeeper, David James, was so well positioned that he could get outside his area and clear without difficulty.

These are just small incidents but the effect is cumulative when so many are handled well. Portsmouth's expertise was such that Cardiff's effort to equalise looked futile. Only Glenn Loovens might have confounded that belief but, with 11 minutes to go, he headed a corner from the substitute, Aaron Ramsey, so steeply downwards that it bounced over the crossbar.

Portsmouth had the better opportunities, so much so that Nwankwo Kanu could escape notoriety after being guilty of one of those blunders that usually enter Cup final lore. With a beautiful touch he had lost Loovens in the 22nd minute and gone round the goalkeeper, Peter Enckelman, but then hit the outside of the post when the angle ought to have posed no difficulty in front of an unguarded net.

The Nigerian's waiting time for therapy was brief. A quarter of an hour later John Utaka had no trouble in making a yard on the Cardiff left-back, Tony Capaldi, and putting in a low cross. It was not a simple delivery but Enckelman, who had been ill at ease from the outset, should, at a minimum, have thrust it far away. His touch was more of a lay-off, inviting Kanu to slip the ball into an open goal.

• Guardian Service