Hart: Pompey have proved mettle

Paul Hart is convinced his Portsmouth team have already shown they have what it takes to merit their proud Premier League status.And that is bad news for troubled Newcastle who they face at St James' Park on Monday night.Pompey can practically cement their presence at the top table for a sixth successive campaign with a win on Tyneside that would take them onto the normally accepted safety mark of 40 points.Few expected them, despite the revival under Hart, to achieve that comfort zone with a victory over title favourites Manchester United at Old Trafford on Wednesday and they went down 2-0.That was only their second defeat since Hart, who was Head of Youth Development, took over the first team reins after Tony Adams was sacked as manager in February.But Hart believes Pompey's battlers again made it clear, with a performance of character, determination and no little skill against what he calls "the best team in the world" that they are worthy of their top-flight membership, despite a largely traumatic campaign.He said: "There was a performance given at Old Trafford which, despite the loss, puts us in good heart for the next game. And that was extremely important."It was never a case of us going there and lying down and thinking we can just turn out when we want."We showed we can turn out in every game and I was delighted with the attitude, especially in the second half."We've done this in every game so far since I've been here apart from the one against West Bromwich Albion when there were a few complaints I have to say, but we are over that and the aim remains the same - to stay resolute and difficult to beat for the rest of the season."Sure, we started against United with a little bit of trepidation, conceded an early goal and had to ride our luck a bit."But there was also some sound defensive work and some great goalkeeping by David James. In the second half we had a good amount of control, took the game to them more and possibly could have come away with something."And there are many teams who have gone to Old Trafford from all over the world and got pummelled but the way we performed I think we can hold our heads up high. We have shown we are highly competitive and we've done more than enough to suggest we deserve to be here at this level."Pompey fans undoubtedly feared a morale-shattering mauling after Wayne Rooney put United in front after just nine minutes but somehow Hart's team held out against further punishment to half-time and then clearly had United on edge for much of the second period, until Michael Carrick's clincher eight minutes from time.Pompey centre-back Sylvain Distin said: "Of course we were beaten by a better team because United are a great side but we stuck together, dug in and gave them some problems in the second half."There's never very much consolation when you come away with no points but I think on this occasion we showed some good character and didn't lose the confidence we built up in the previous games."Since Hart and coach Brian Kidd took over, Pompey have won three of their nine games and drawn four others - three of those away to fellow strugglers Middlesbrough, Hull and Stoke.Newcastle beat them 3-0 at Fratton Park a week before Christmas and it was the start of a dismal spell under Adams which raised just one point from nine league games.But since that December clash the Magpies have slipped from 12th to second bottom - a slide still not arrested by the recent arrival of Alan Shearer as manager - and now trail Hart's team by six points.

Source: Eurosport