Source: Eurosport
Pompey boss hails battling qualities
Portsmouth boss Paul Hart has praised the fighting qualities of his players after they edged the club to the brink of Premier League safety.Pompey emerged from their trip to desperate Newcastle with a point to show for their efforts on a night when they might even have snatched all three to deepen Alan Shearer's woes.However, while Hart believes they could be as little as one victory away from the finishing line with four games to play, he is confident the side he inherited from Tony Adams in February will scrap all the way to the last kick of the season.He said: "The performance, the clean sheet, a little bit of a cushion against one of our competitors in the lower echelons - it puts a bit of space between us."But it's also sending out a message to people that we are fighting, and that's a good message to send."Monday night's 0-0 draw at St James' Park on a night when the Magpies really needed to win to give themselves a chance of avoiding the drop left Pompey in 14th place in the table, seven points better off than Newcastle and Middlesbrough inside the bottom three.They face Arsenal at home on Saturday and then travel to Blackburn before Sunderland visit Fratton Park, and they end their campaign at Wigan on the final day.But on the evidence of their trip to Tyneside, which saw them draw the Magpies' sting before making a late surge which might have brought all three points, they will be confident of a successful conclusion to an eventful season.Pompey have lost only two of the 10 games they have played under Hart - and those to Chelsea and Manchester United - and the manager has been indebted to his senior players for their role in that run of results.He said: "Our big players in the last two months have produced big performances - David James, Sol Campbell, Sylvain Distin, Sean Davis. They have been outstanding."But from my point of view, I saw a magnificent team effort last night."It was James who shone in what might have proved the pivotal moment in the game when, with 63 minutes gone, he found England team-mate Michael Owen bearing down on him after he had been played in by Mark Viduka.Owen could hardly have asked for a better opportunity to end his eight-game wait for a goal, which dates back to January 10.However, he could only fire against James' legs as the keeper won their personal shoot-out to preserve his clean sheet.Hart said: "He [James] could play on, you know, for another four or five years. He's in great nick and he has been absolutely phenomenal."He has proved to me that he is rightfully in that England position as number one."James had earlier kept out Damien Duff's 38th-minute strike as Newcastle, roared on by a passionate home crowd, set about the task of collecting the first of three home victories Shearer had established as their survival target before kick-off.Viduka and Obafemi Martins also passed up good opportunities, but after Owen's miss, it was Pompey who sensed a chance to snatch the win, and they went agonisingly close twice at the death through Peter Crouch and Richard Hughes, whose 82nd-minute header came back off the post.Hart confirmed after the game that Croatian midfielder Niko Kranjcar will not play again this season because of his ankle injury, but revealed he is executed to return in time for pre-season training.He said: "He had a further scan last Friday and unfortunately, that's it for him."But he will be back for pre-season."[LNB]
