City slickers hit Pompey for six on historic day

MARK HUGHES saluted his six-shooters after Manchester City crushed Portsmouth to signal the start of the new era at Eastlands.

City triumphed 6-0 in front of the club’s new chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who has been appointed by billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Hughes described it as the best display by a team he has managed. He said: “It was the best performance by one of my teams by a country mile. If you had to pick any day to impress people today was the day to do it.

“From start to finish our drive and determination and our ability to pick the right pass and create chances was evident for all to see. It was a fantastic day for us. Portsmouth are a good side but today they were not allowed to play their game.”

Jo, Richard Dunne, Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips plus substitutes Ched Evans and Gelson Fernandes each scored in a stunning all-round display.

Hughes picked out Robinho, Stephen Ireland, Wright-Phillips and Vincent Kompany as the star performers. He added: “There were outstanding personal performances within a great team performance.

“Stephen Ireland again was exceptional and has been for many weeks, and we hope we can sustain him. Robinho will grab headlines and rightly so and there were good performances by Vincent and Shaun and a clean sheet as well. In the end I was taking people off to allow them a standing ovation — and that’s the only reason I made the substitutions to be perfectly honest.”

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was shell-shocked and admitted his defence and goalkeeper David James had an awful game. Redknapp said: “I’m bitterly disappointed — I didn’t see that coming as we were a team on form on the back of three fantastic wins.

“We gave away two terrible goals in the first half, but towards the end of the first half we had some chances and thought we could get back into this game.”

Redknapp said he was not envious about Hughes spending power, and insisted his defence had played out of character.

He added: “It was a chapter of errors and they did not have much to say for themselves afterwards.

“Tomorrow we will have a meeting and look at all the goals and where we went wrong,” he added afterwards.

MAN CITY: Hart, Zabaleta, Richards, Dunne, Garrido, Kompany, Wright-Phillips, Ireland (Gelson 77), Elano, Robinho (Sturridge 85), Jo (Evans 71).

PORTSMOUTH: James, Johnson (Pamarot 82), Distin, Campbell, Belhadj, Diarra, Davis (Diop 33), Kaboul (Utaka 46), Armand Traore, Crouch, Defoe.

Referee: Alan Wiley (Staffordshire).

OPTA FACT: Pompey have won none of their last 14 trips to play City since 1963-64.

OPTA FACT: It is 12 games since City drew a league game — the longest current run in the top flight.