Grant: Players feel Pompey pressure

PORTSMOUTH boss Avram Grant admits it is becoming tough for his players to ignore the cash-strapped club’s off-the-field issues.

The Israeli’s side were held 1-1 by Coventry in Saturday’s FA Cup third round clash at Fratton Park, with Kevin-Prince Boateng canceling out David Bell’s opener for the Sky Blues.

Following a disappointing display in front of just 11,214 fans, hundreds of Pompey followers laid siege to the directors’ entrance in Frogmore Road for an hour after the final whistle.

With their club struggling to pay their players for the third time this season and facing a winding-up petition in the High Court, the disgruntled supporters demanded answers from absent owner Ali Al-Faraj.

Chants of “Where’s the owner of our club?” and “The owner is a coward” reverberated throughout the corridors of the ground.

Grant says it has become increasingly difficult to focus on matters on the field and admits it is hard to keep the team’s financial problems off the players’ minds.

He said: “It’s not easy because players and managers like me are used to dealing with problems on the pitch.

“When there is a problem off the pitch, you cannot say to the players ‘Oh, it’s nothing.’

“They know there is a problem but still, when they come to the pitch they need to give their best.”

Pompey went into the Coventry clash with just 18 first-team players available for selection.

Following the draw, they now face an unwelcome third-round replay at the Ricoh Arena in between vital Premier League games with Fulham on Saturday and Birmingham on January 16.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Stoke City were forced to come from behind to beat non-league outfit York at the Britannia Stadium.

Despite the visiting team only arriving at the ground half an hour before the delayed 3.30pm kick-off due to bad weather, a giant-killing was briefly on the cards in the first half when York took a shock lead through Neil Barrett’s header.

Stoke turned things around within minutes as Danny Parslow deflected the ball past his own keeper and Ricardo Fuller headed home 60 seconds later, with Rory Delap’s trademark long-throw providing an assist on both occasions.

Matthew Etherington’s second-half free-kick then ensured victory for the Potters.

Birmingham were fortunate to draw 0-0 at Nottingham Forest, for whom Luke Chambers headed against the crossbar and Robert Earnshaw missed a penalty.

Bobby Zamora’s 15th-minute strike earned Fulham a 1-0 win over Swindon, Town keeper David Lucas later saving a penalty from Andy Johnson.

Burnley beat League One MK Dons 2-1, Graham Alexander’s penalty (23) and Steven Fletcher’s goal (35) proving sufficient despite Dean Morgan’s late strike (89).

Managerless Bolton hammered Lincoln 4-0. They took the lead through Moses Swaibu’s own goal (49), Chung-Yong Lee making it 2-0 within two minutes before Gary Cahill (83) and Mark Davies (90) rounded off the scoring.