Pompey held as Redknapp rues rash Robert

Portsmouth 1 West Ham 1

Robert, on loan for the season from Newcastle, is not noted for his ferocious tackling yet the winger managed to pick up two yellow cards for badly-timed challenges against Matthew Etherington and then Paul Konchesky.

That means he is suspended for the Highbury clash but Redknapp was satisfied his man had merely been trying to show the commitment the newly-returned manager demands of a squad he regards as woefully thin in many departments.

He said: “I ask the players to run and work and when they lose the ball chase it, tackle and try to get it back. For the second one, he lost the ball and made a genuine attempt to win the ball. He didn’t and caught Konchesky instead so it was a fair yellow.”

Pompey, who remain in the Premiership’s bottom three, dominated the first half and took a deserved lead through Gary O’Neil in the 17th minute.

After the break it was a different story, and the Hammers might have gone on to snatch all three points after defender James Collins equalised in the 56th minute.

Redknapp said: “I came in at half-time thinking we really had three points there for the taking, because if we had gone in two or three up it would have been about right. But we didn’t kill them off, unfortunately, and you always feel they are capable of coming back again, which they did.”

Hammers boss Alan Pardew accepted that overall a draw was probably a fair outcome. But that did not stop him lamenting the failure to convert second half chances, with substitute Christian Dailly repeatedly failing to hit the target with headers from promising positions.

He said: “We were below par in the first half and superb in the second. In the end, we were totally dominating and we could have got the winner. We had a great chance at the end with Christian Dailly. I think he had three headers where you would fancy him to score one but on reflection I feel a point was probably the right result.”

Pardew also lost Hayden Mullins, Tomas Repka and Danny Gabbidon to injury before the break, with the latter having come off the bench himself with stitches in a knee wound.

Pardew said: “Within seconds he got a bang on the knee in a scuffle and it all opened up. I certainly don’t want to make that mistake again. That’s him out of the holiday period now.”

PORTSMOUTH: Ashdown, Primus (Priske 20), O’Brien, Stefanovic, Griffin, O’Neil, Hughes, Taylor, LuaLua, Silva (Viafara 86), Robert.

WEST HAM: Carroll, Repka (Gabbidon 33), Ferdinand, Collins, Konchesky, Newton, Mullins (Fletcher 12), Reo-Coker, Etherington, Harewood, Zamora, Gabbidon (Dailly 39).

Ref: A Wiley (Staffordshire).