Greatest prize in sight for Hull

THIS has been a season of highlights for Hull City, but the most dazzling achievement of all is still to come.

Premier League survival would eclipse everything accomplished on Humberside in the last five years, including last season’s dramatic play-off promotion at Wembley, and the club inched a little closer towards its target with this hard-earned point against Portsmouth.

“It would be massive,” Nick Barmby, the veteran midfielder, said. “It would be our Wembley — but we have got seven cup finals to play.

“Because we have Manchester United last game of the season we don’t want to be too late going about our job, but it would be a major achievement.”

Barmby, like manager Phil Brown, was keen to view Saturday’s draw with fellow strugglers Portsmouth as a point gained. Both sides laboured throughout a dour struggle and dropped places as a result, Hull to 15th and Pompey to 16th. Yet with the bottom four all losing, it was another step closer towards the final goal.

“There was a lot of tension between the two teams, which is natural with what is at stake,” Barmby added.

“The final third for both teams was a bit scrappy and we never really created a great deal of chances, but I thought our defence was magnificent and our attitude was spot on again.

“With the bottom three losing — we’ll take the point and take the positives out of it.”

The main talking point was the dismissal of Portsmouth’s England defender Glen Johnson. The former West Ham and Chelsea player was dismissed 10 minutes from time for a harsh second booking after Dean Marney caught him in attempting to clear. Pompey manager Paul Hart believed referee Chris Foy’s decision was difficult to understand but Johnson was on his last warning. He received his first yellow card for kicking Kamil Zayatte early on and could possibly have been sent off before half-time following a couple of other indiscretions.

HULL (4-4-2): Duke 6, Ricketts 7 (Folan 85, 5), Zayatte 7, Turner 7, Dawson 7, Mendy 5, Ashbee 6, Barmby 5 (Marney 74, 5), Geovanni 5, Manucho 6, Fagan 6 (Kilbane 71, 5).

Subs Not Used: Myhill, Garcia, Halmosi, Featherstone.

PORTSMOUTH (4-4-2): James 7, Kaboul 7, Campbell 8, Distin 7, Hreidarsson 7, Johnson 5, Mullins 6, Hughes 6, Nugent 5 (Kanu 64, 5), Kranjcar 6 (Belhadj 76, 5), Crouch 6.

Subs Not Used: Begovic, Pennant, Basinas, Pamarot, Utaka.

REFEREE: Chris Foy (Merseyside) 6: Portsmouth’s players complained about Johnson’s red card but the defender was treading a tightrope all afternoon.

MATCH RATING: ** Tense and scrappy.