Blackburn 2 - Pompey 0
It was Paul Hart's birthday last week. It's doubtful the party hats and streamers were out in the Pompey boss' household at the weekend, though.
Hart explained in the wake of comfortably the worst display from his side in his 12 games in charge, that he didn't receive any cards after turning 56.
What would have irked him more was he didn't get any kind of performance from his team at Ewood Park either.
No one was expecting Pompey to blow Sam Allardyce's side away and secure their place in the Premier League on a wave of irresistible, free-flowing, attacking football.
It was always going to be a workmanlike, dogged performance from Hart's men, as we've come to expect in the past couple of months.
That has been the approach, like it or hate it, which has hauled Pompey away from trouble.
But defensive resilience has also been a key hallmark of his 12 games in charge, laying the foundations for the team's drive towards safety.
The problem is when there are the kind of gaffes which led to the Blues' downfall on Saturday, that philosophy is unpicked.
As Allardyce basked in the afterglow of all but securing Rovers place in the top flight next season, Hart reflected on the frustrating manner of the loss.
Hart, as it is becoming increasingly clear is his way, made no excuses in a frank assessment.
He made it clear it was not good enough.
His team didn't fight and failed to dictate, a recipe for being turned over.
There were more holes in Pompey's performance than Blackburn, Lancashire. And that's 4,000 according to the Beatles song A Day in the Life.
What added to Hart's ire was the goals were totally avoidable.
Christopher Samba may be a makeshift striker, but he is also a defence's worst nightmare. The Congo international is a beast of player and caused Pompey all sorts of problems.
And to think he would have been utilised to negate Peter Crouch's threat if Jason Roberts was fit.
Samba was the man behind Blackburn's 31st-minute opener, as he brought down Stephen Warnock's cross.
David James advanced as Samba bore down on him, but as the two came together the ball kicked up to Morten Gamst Pedersen who drilled his first goal of the season past the covering Sylvain Distin on the line.
The first instinct, and a more generous one to James, was Samba's lunge on the England keeper was illegal, and it no doubt would have been deemed so by many other referees and unanimously so on the continent.
The 38-year-old's attempt to claim the ball wasn't a convincing one however, and it did look as if James did think twice with 15 stone of Samba to challenge.
Assistant referee Stephen Child kept his flag down as Mike Riley looked for support and the goal stood.
Riley didn't need a second opinion to award the penalty which led to Blackburn's killer second.
Hermann Hreidarsson's inexplicable lunge towards the ball with his arm 13 minutes after the restart led to the inevitable outcome, and Benni McCarthy greedily accepted the gift.
As Hart pointed out in the game's aftermath, it wasn't as if Pompey had been torn apart by riveting and rapier-like Rovers attacks.
If anyone was due a modicum of credit from the display it was Sol Campbell (pictured right), and despite failing to clear the opener, Sylvain Distin did win his share of headers and challenges.
The mistakes meant the game was over by the time Pompey rallied over the final quarter.
Jermaine Pennant's introduction provided an injection of attacking intent that had been missing. That and Kanu's majesty created a flurry of opportunities.
First Pennant fired just wide and then Crouch miscued, before two moments from John Utaka which sum up how things have gone for him at Pompey.
Utaka had shown some flashes of danger after being thrown on seven minutes after the restart.
But then he failed to dispatch Kanu's through ball after Ryan Nelsen cleared when he danced around Paul Robinson.
A generous view would credit Nelsen rather then harangue the hapless Nigerian.
Quite what he was doing taking the 85th-minute penalty after Keith Andrews' handball is another matter all together.
Someone so obviously bereft of confidence as Utaka shouldn't have been given the task, and led to the inevitable ugly outcome.
What has become increasingly concerning as the season has wore on, is the reality that if Peter Crouch doesn't score, Pompey don't score.
Crouch has bagged over a third of his team's goals this season, and that takes into account the nine goals Jermain Defoe grabbed before he left in January.
The 6ft 7in hitman does tend to find the back of the net in flurries, but he has now failed to score in seven appearances.
That has coincided with his team's 372-minute barren run stretching back to Kanu's winner against Bolton.
In the final reckoning this season Pompey may think themselves a tad fortunate there are a number of poor teams in this year's Premier League.
They may be stumbling towards the summer, but it could just be that the impetus from the first 10 games of Hart's tenure has already got them across the line.
That and the collective chaos in the north east look likely to combine and have the Blues looking forward to their seventh successive season with the big boys.
The other end of the country is now where all Pompey eyes turn to, as we look to see if Middlesbrough and Newcastle can continue their dual incompetence at St James' Park.
Then it's Sunderland at Fratton Park a week today, and hopefully the kind of party Pompey helped kick-start on Saturday.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Sunday 12 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North west
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Cloudy
Temperature: 3 C to 7 C
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