Karada’s late goal huge Bolton blow

Portsmouth 1 Bolton 1

Karadas expertly hooked in a Wayne Routledge cross to deny Sam Allardyce’s men.

Bolton had taken the lead when Khalilou Fadiga, who missed a first half penalty, scored direct from a free-kick near the corner flag.

Pompey had the latest two of their nine January signings, Routledge and Argentinian star Andres D’Alessandro in the starting line-up.

But the inclusion of Zimbabwe striker Benjani Mwaruwari was more of a surprise - the day after he had scored for Zimbabwe in the African Nations Cup in Egypt.

When Pompey managed to up the tempo they ruffled Bolton’s confident feathers and were able to get the ball forward in attack.

In first-half stoppage-time, Pompey goalkeeper Dean Kiely brought down Stelios Giannakopoulos for a cast-iron Bolton penalty. But Fadiga, who had begged captain Nolan to let him take it, fired high over the bar.

Portsmouth sent on striker Svetoslav Todorov in place of O’Neill at the start of the second half, and he made an almost instant impact.

With 70 minutes gone, however, Bolton went ahead with a fluke goal direct from a free-kick.

Fadiga was entrusted with the kick despite his penalty miss in the first half, and his curling effort sailed directly into the far corner of the Portsmouth net, despite Matthew Taylor’s efforts to hook it away.

In the 86th minute, however, on-loan Norwegian Azar Karadas, who replaced Mwaruwari a few minutes earlier, volleyed a spectacular equaliser from a Routledge cross, his first goal for Portsmouth.

PORTSMOUTH: Kiely, Primus, O’Brien, Stefanovic (Griffin 15), Taylor, Routledge, Davis, Pedro Mendes, O’Neil (Todorov 45), D’Alessandro, Mwaruwari (Karadas 81).

BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, Hunt (Vaz Te 60), N’Gotty, Ben Haim, Gardner, Davies, Nolan, O’Brien, Fadiga (Fojut 86), Giannakopoulos, Jansen.

Ref: D Gallag.