The England striker's sizzling 25th-minute opener had Fratton fans drooling.

Jermain Defoe's cross from the right was met with a flying bicycle kick from Crouch who, with back to goal, sent a brilliant right-foot effort into the net.

It drew immediate comparisons to one he netted against Galatasaray in the Champion's League two years ago while with Liverpool.

For Redknapp, though, the quality of the strike did not surprise.

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The Blues boss has seen his record signing perform it plenty of times in training, much to the annoyance of the opposite goalkeeper.

And he believes it can be held up as an example to all.

He said: 'It was a great finish from Crouchie, a great technique, great
volley.

'He's got great volleying technique.

'I spoke to him the other day in training – the balls were coming in and he was hitting volleys fantastic.

He gets his body position right, gets his knee over the ball and it's terrific.

'Some people don't know how to volley a ball, they don't get their body position right and if you don't do that it goes up in the air all the time.

'It's important you drop your shoulder, get your knee over and that's what he does.'

Win number three of the week showed that Friday morning dip in the icy sea worked wonders after all.

Just hours after their 4-2 aggregate win over Vitoria Guimaraes on Thursday night, Pompey's players were instructed to plunge into the Atlantic.

It couldn't have been pleasant on those Portuguese heroes.

And Redknapp himself admitted even he wasn't quite sure of the benefits of such a novel recovery programme.

He added: 'The sports scientists wanted the players to have ice baths.
'I don't know why, they'll tell you what it does.

'We didn't have any ice baths at the Portuguese hotel so we thought the next best thing was a freezing cold sea.

'It's supposed to be good. I don't know why – I'm old school.
'When we got back to the hotel at 2.30am they said you have to eat and refuel.

'When I was at West Ham with Bobby Moore and all them we used to refuel at 2.30am too!'

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