Hart hails Pompey resilence

11 April 2009 19:14
Paul Hart hailed Portsmouth's resilience after Niko Kranjcar rescued a 2-2 draw against West Brom. Saturday's clash was billed as a relegation six-pointer and it was Pompey who took the early advantage when Younes Kaboul hammered the home side into the lead. But a second-half Baggies fight-back saw Tony Mowbray's men take the lead at Fratton Park thanks to goals from skipper Jonathan Greening and Chris Brunt's free-kick, which Graham Dorrans has gone on to claim. But Kranjcar's delightful free-kick saw the match end all square and Hart thought it was a fair result. He said: "I don't think we played particularly well today, and I thought West Brom played with a freedom that their position allows them to while not trying to take anything away from them. "We showed different qualities, we had a lot of resilience when things weren't going well and we knew we weren't playing well but we stuck in there." Hart was keen to praise his two goalscorers especially French defender Kaboul, who arrived from Tottenham in the summer, and the Pompey boss reckons he can challenge regular right-back Glen Johnson for a starting berth. "Younes Kaboul is now become a raiding full-back and it's textbook - going past two or three men and then got in the box and a left-foot screamer - fantastic," Hart added. "And the second one, the free-kick, it takes a lot of courage at that stage of the game to come up and take one and it was perfect."

Source: SKY_Sports