Redknapp gives press a miss

Harry Redknapp ducked his after-match press conference as a goal from Aston Villa striker Milan Baros sent Portsmouth closer towards the relegation trap door.

Pompey went down to a ninth successive Barclays Premiership defeat away from Fratton Park to leave themselves eight points adrift of fourth-from-bottom West Brom.

Redknapp kept his players locked in the dressing room for nearly an hour in an after- match inquest and sent skipper Gary O’Neil to face the press.

O’Neil was in defiant mood and believes Portsmouth can still pull off the ‘Great Escape’ along similar lines to West Brom 12 months ago.

But on this evidence it will take a Herculean effort to keep the south-coast club in the top flight and the victory margin for Villa would have been greater had Kevin Phillips not spurned a hat-trick of opportunities.

O’Neil said: “We had a chat after the game as we always do. We discussed what went wrong as we always do.

“We should have done better. We are disappointed with the way we performed. If we had performed to our maximum, we would have won the game.

“We did well in the first half but gave away a bad goal and after that never looked like getting back into the game.

“Villa kept us penned in our own haf for much of the second period and that was disappointing but we still feel we can get out of this situation.

“People have said for a while that we are down. We don’t believe we are. We believe we are doing enough in games and only against Birmingham in recent months were we outclassed.

“We have to keep plugging away. The other teams at the bottom didn’t get great results today so we are still in with a shout.

“What we have to do is win a couple of games in quick succession, hope the other teams around us don’t pick any points up, and then we will be right in amongst them.”

Villa assistant manager Roy Aitken believes his side need to improve their home form after clocking up only their fourth win at Villa Park this season.

He said: “It was a good three points. It is vital we start picking up more points at home. In the last couple of seasons we have got nine or 10 victories at our place.

“Our away form has been excellent but over the course of a season your home form keeps you in the division and your away form takes you up the table.

“We deserved the result. Portsmouth are fighting for their lives and tried to keep it tight but we could have got more goals.

“Kevin Phillips missed two or three chances that he would normally put away, something he admitted himself in the dressing room after the game.”