Portsmouth 2 Middlesbrough 1: Portsmouth battled to earn their first Premiership victory since St Stephen's Day with Matthew Taylor, the FA Cup villain against arch-rivals Southampton at the weekend, inspiring the revival last night with his first league goal.
Malcolm Christie scored his first since September 2003 in his first start since November of the same year to give injury-ravaged Boro the lead 10 minutes before the end of the first half. But his dream comeback after a number of serious injuries faded as Pompey redoubled their efforts.
Taylor's equaliser came five minutes later and, although Aiyegbeni Yakubu accepted the congratulations for his 13th Portsmouth goal in the 58th minute the last touch looked to be applied by Boro's French full back Franck Queudrue.
Boro were granted tons of possession and they secured the lead in the 35th minute through Christie. The striker netted from close range after Kostas Chalkias could not hang on to Ray Parlour's low blast from 30 yards.
It was Aliou Cisse's mistake which led to Parlour gaining possession in the goal-scoring move, but the Senegal midfielder made up for it with his part in Pompey's equaliser five minutes later.
Mark Schwarzer did well to stop Taylor's shot at the near post, but as he struggled to claim the loose ball Cisse dragged it away, squeezed it back from the dead-ball line and found the wing back perfectly placed to rifle into the roof of the net.
Pompey were fired up again and almost took the lead with a blistering effort by Yakubu, which was just off the mark, but he would later score the winner.
PORTSMOUTH: Chalkias, Primus, Stefanovic, De Zeeuw, Taylor, O'Neil, Cisse, Hughes, Berger (Rodic 81), Fuller (Skopelitis 73), Yakubu. Subs Not Used: Curtis, Ashdown, Mezague. Booked: Taylor. Goals: Taylor 40, Yakubu 58.
Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Reiziger, Southgate, Cooper (McMahon 29), Queudrue, Parlour, Morrison, Zenden, Downing, Christie (Job 66), Hasselbaink, McMahon (Graham 80). Subs Not Used: Nash, Doriva. Booked: Parlour, Zenden. Goals: Christie 35.
Referee: P Crossley (Kent).
