Boro fail to halt slide

Portsmouth 2 Middlesbrough 1

Portsmouth battled to earn their first league win since Boxing Day with Matthew Taylor, the FA Cup villain against arch-rivals Southampton at the weekend, inspiring the revival with his first-ever Premiership goal.

Malcolm Christie scored his first since September 2003 in his first start since November of the same year to give injury-ravaged Boro the lead 10 minutes before the end of the first half.

But his dream comeback after a number of serious injuries faded as Pompey redoubled their efforts.

Taylor’s equaliser came five minutes later and although Aiyegbeni Yakubu accepted the congratulations for his 13th Portsmouth goal in the 58th minute the last touch looked to be applied by Boro’s French full-back Franck Queudrue.

Boro had lost veteran defender Colin Cooper just before the opening goal and were fortunate to survive a Yakubu penalty appeal when Michael Reiziger appeared to bring down the striker. After the those two incidents the visitors’ defending fell to pieces.

Aliou Cisse scrambled the ball from keeper Mark Schwarzer’s hands to set up a quick equaliser for Taylor, whose handball gave Saints a late penalty winner at St Mary’s.

And Queudrue appeared to apply the final touch to the Ricardo Fuller pass which brought Yakubu racing into the six-yard box.

But Pompey could have thrown it away in the closing minutes when new signings Giannis Skopelitis and Alexander Rodic were introduced from the bench.

Boro were granted tons of possession and had to be denied by dour defending but Kostas Chalkias, the new Greek goalkeeper who looked shaky in Saturday’s cup tie, earned his corn with a brave save which denied Christie, making his first appearance since a substitute role in a UEFA Cup in September.

Pompey felt they should have had a penalty moments after Cooper’s 29th-minute exit when Yakubu was tackled from behind by Reiziger just as he was about to slip the ball past Schwarzer but referee Paul Crossley, in only his second Premiership match, was unimpressed.

The home side’s anguish doubled when Boro took a 35th-minute lead through Christie.

The striker netted from close range after the giant Chalkias could not hang onto Ray Parlour’s low blast from 30 yards.

It was Cisse’s initial mistake which led to Parlour gaining possession in the goalscoring move but the Senegal midfielder made up for it with his part in Pompey’s equaliser five minutes later.

Schwarzer did well to stop Taylor’s shot at the near post but as he struggled to claim the loose ball Cisse dragged it away, squeezed it back from the dead-ball line and found the wing-back perfectly placed to rifle into the roof of the net for his first-ever Premiership goal.

Pompey were fired up again and almost took the lead with a blistering effort by Yakubu which was just off the mark but they did enough to earn a somewhat lucky decider after the break.