Portsmouth 2 Aston Villa 2

This was a game I knew was not going to be easy, Aston Villa was the first team Pompey played in the Premiership and we won that one 2-1 and we went on to finish 13th that first year.
So the contented pig was a quiet and new smelling place that did not like people with hats or caps by order of the management?, so I was asked to take mine off, not much Pompey but the sofa was nice to sit on.
So to the game well I did think this one was going to be a draw and it was. The first half was very good until Villa got a pen when keeper James, who was fortunate to be given only a yellow card by referee Uriah Rennie before Barry thrashed home the spot-kick.
The second half was a screamer first Taylor headed the ball home from a Mwaruwari cross then James made a fantastic save from a Villa free kick, he jumped from one post to the other to push out the ball. We then got our own pen when Barry handled the ball in the area, so Taylor got his second with a well struck pen. It all looked like we would get all three points until Angel got the second for Villa to draw the game to add to the drama, Mendes was then shown red by referee Rennie for a second bookable offence, a foul on Gavin McCann. So we are down to 4th still going good.

Pompeygary’s best man Taylor back to his best since the promotion year.
Pompeygary’s worst Barry dirty player he elbowed O'Neil in the back of the
head.

Portsmouth: James, Johnson, Primus, Campbell, Pamarot, O'Neil, Fernandes, Pedro Mendes, Taylor, LuaLua (Mwaruwari 34), Kanu (Hughes 86).
Subs Not Used: Ashdown, Thompson, Kranjcar.
Sent Off: Pedro Mendes (86).
Booked: James, Pedro Mendes.
Goals: Taylor 52, 80 pen.
Aston Villa: Taylor, Mellberg, Cahill, Ridgewell, Barry, Petrov, McCann, Osbourne, Davis (Hughes 90), Baros (Angel 78), Agbonlahor.
Subs Not Used: Olejnik, Bouma, Gardner.
Booked: Ridgewell, Osbourne, Baros, Barry.
Goals: Barry 37 pen, Angel 82.
Att: 20,042
Ref: U Rennie (S Yorkshire).