Portsmouth 3-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers - Match Report

01 May 2010 17:16
John Utaka scored his first goal for a year, and the 1,000th in Premier League history, to help Portsmouth secure a 3-1 victory against Wolves in their final top-flight match of the season at Fratton Park.

Aruna Dindane and Michael Brown were also on target as Avram Grant's already relegated side ended a seven-match winless run in style.

Portsmouth 3-1  Wolverhampton Wanderers: As it happened

Kevin Doyle's eighth goal of the season proved to be no more than a consolation for the visitors.

FA Cup finalists Pompey took the lead in the 20th minute when Dindane rose unchallenged to head Brown's floated free-kick beyond Marcus Hahnemann and into the left corner of the net.

The goal seemed to spark a dull game into life and Hahnemann denied the hosts a second on 25 minutes, pushing away Frederic Piquionne's powerful right-foot shot following the Frenchman's marauding run.

Wolves came agonisingly close to equalising in the 29th minute when Geoffrey Mujangi Bia narrowly failed to connect to David Jones' teasing free-kick.

Mujangi Bia should have done better when he shot straight at David James after Karl Henry had tricked his way past Steve Finnan and pulled the ball back for the Belgian.

Doyle showed Mujangi Bia how it should be done ten minutes before the break. James pulled off a superb double save to stop headers from Ronald Zubar and Doyle but was powerless to prevent the Irishman bundling in the rebound.

Wolves' joy was short-lived though as Utaka cashed in on more sloppy defending from the visitors to restore Portsmouth's lead just four minutes later.

Utaka was given far too much freedom to cut in from the right wing before firing an unstoppable low shot past Hahnemann from the edge of the penalty area.

James needed to be at his best early in the second half to turn Doyle's acrobatic effort over the crossbar and Wolves should have been level on the hour when Doyle's shot rebounded off a post and the hapless Sylvan Ebanks-Blake scuffed his rebound effort wide when presented with an open goal.

Brown put the game out of Wolves' reach 23 minutes from time with a sweetly-struck right-foot shot from midway inside the box.

Source: DSG