Pompey Shoot Down Hawks

Last updated : 05 August 2008 By Jim Bonner
A brace from Ben Sahar and goals from Arnold Mvuemba and Glen Johnson completed a rout at Westleigh Park.

A completely different side to the one that started at Oxford took part in the game. The side consisted of Ashdown, Johnson, Hreidarsson, Primus, Wilson, Little, Hughes, Davis, Mvuemba, Utaka and Sahar.

Portsmouth old boys Guy Butters and Luke Nightingale took part for the home side who have strengthened their squad to the point where they are now favourites for the Conference South title.

Pompey took the lead early on when Arnold Mvuemba played through Ben Sahar and he rifled the ball past Kevin Scriven. The Israeli doubled Pompey's lead towards the end of the first half by heading in Glen Little's cross.

Jamie Ashdown was barely tested in the first half with only a Brett Poate volley causing him any sort of problems but he gathered the ball at the second attempt.

The second half was much of a bore in all honesty until the last period. Having dominated the entire second half, Pompey had to wait until the 85th minute for Arnie to curl in a pearler of a goal.

Glen Johnson had rattled the crossbar with a scorcher earlier in the half but the England right back did get himself on the scoresheet by unleashing a shot from an extremely narrow angle past the Hawks' substitute goalkeeper.

The only work notable work Ashdown had to do in the second half was to palm away a deflected shot from Danny Edwards but other than that I thought Shaun Gale's side were pretty disappointing given that we mainly played a second string side.

Still, it was a good win for us and our next friendly match just happens to be the biggest friendly game in world football and yet Pompey still haven't sold their allocation with around 4,000 tickets left on sale.

If you haven't bought a ticket yet and have some spare dosh then what are you waiting for!? This could well be the last time Pompey play at Wembley for a hell of a long time and I know I'll be savouring every minute of it.