The Hindu : Sport / Football : Santa Cruz leaves Portsmouth’s top-five bid in tatters

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Santa Cruz leaves Portsmouth’s top-five bid in tatters

Liverpool held to a draw by Birmingham City

— PHOTO: AFP

ANNUS MIRABILIS: It’s been a wonderful year for Blackburn striker Santa Cruz, who netted his 17th goal of an impressive first season in EPL.

PORTSMOUTH: Blackburn striker Roque Santa Cruz shattered Portsmouth’s bid for a top five finish as his second- half goal sealed a 1-0 win at Fratton Park on Sunday.

Santa Cruz struck with 16 minutes left to claim the 17th league goal of an impressive first season in English football and leave Portsmouth four points behind fifth-placed Everton with two games to play.

“We saw that we hadn’t played good enough to win the game in the first half but we were a different team after half-time,” Santa Cruz said. “It was a nice play for the goal and a great finish.

“We have achieved most of what we wanted this season and it would be nice to qualify for Europe as well. We are still in with a chance.”

David James missed his first league game since joining Portsmouth in 2006 due to the calf injury he suffered last weekend, so Jamie Ashdown made a rare start.

Ashdown looked nervous in the first few minutes, fumbling a cross under pressure from Santa Cruz and Jason Roberts, but Lassana Diarra bailed out his keeper with a hurried clearance.

Portsmouth knew only a win would keep it in the hunt for a top five finish and it started to force the pace.

Sulley Muntari’s first-time shot deflected just over off team-mate Nwankwo Kanu. Then Muntari shot wide after Blackburn failed to clear a corner. Ashdown gradually found his feet and saved well when David Bentley flicked a clever shot towards the top corner.

Portsmouth striker Jermain Defoe had the ball in the net a minute later after running through the centre onto a through pass by Glen Johnson only to be flagged offside.

Defoe threatened again when he found space on the edge of the penalty area and fired a low drive just wide.

Blackburn went straight up the other end and nearly broke the deadlock when Roberts lashed in a powerful effort. Ashdown was equal to it but his parry fell for Santa Cruz, who was unable to get a shot off before being crowded out.

The results: Portsmouth 0 lost to Blackburn 1 (Santa Cruz 74).

Saturday’s results: Birmingham 2 (Forssell 34, Larsson 55) drew with Liverpool 2 (Crouch 63, Benayoun 76); Manchester City 2 (Ireland 10, Benjani 21) lost to Fulham 3 (Kamara 70, 90, Murphy 79); Sunderland 3 (Higginbotham 6, Chopra 45, Pogatetz og 90) bt Middlesbrough 2 (Sanli 4, Alves 73); Tottenham 1 (Malbranque 52) drew with Bolton 1 (Stelios 46); West Ham 2 (Noble 10, Ashton 23) drew with Newcastle 2 (Martins 42, Geremi 45); Wigan 0 drew with Reading 0. — Agencies

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