You could hardly have foreseen it in the early minutes, when Portsmouth threatened several times to score, only for Birmingham, somewhat against the run of the play, to take the lead in the fifth minute.
The star of Birmingham’s show was beyond question Jermaine Pennant. At the time when Arsenal have agreed to pay Southampton an eventual £12m for the 16-year-old Theo Walcott, it is odd to reflect that they once shelled out what then seemed a hefty £2m for a 15-year-old Pennant. Since then, as we know, the little right winger has had what might be described as a chequered career, lent to Leeds, released from Highbury, and finally forgiven by Birmingham after a car crash cost him his liberty.
Birmingham’s patience and tolerance have emphatically paid off. Portsmouth could do little or nothing with Pennant’s pace, footwork and intelligence yesterday. He scored a magnificent goal, took the corner from which another former Arsenal player, Matthew Upson, got another, and had a second-half free kick turned behind at full stretch by the Portsmouth keeper Jamie Ashdown.
The game had barely begun when Pompey’s adventurous Matthew Taylor snapped the ball up for a right-footed shot that was well saved by his capable namesake, the home goalkeeper Maik Taylor.
Soon afterwards, an excellent through-ball from Vincent Pericard released the always committed and sometimes menacing Benjani Mwaruwari, but Maik Taylor blocked that one in turn.
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So for Portsmouth it somewhat traumatically was that in five minutes, Birmingham should go ahead. Pennant was at the root of it with a shrewd ball down the line releasing Mario Melchiot. When he got to the line and crossed, Ashdown, strongly challenged by Emile Heskey, could not hold the ball, and Jiri Jarosik headed in.
Almost immediately afterwards, Portsmouth missed another chance when Pericard, clean through, somehow contrived to pull the ball wastefully wide. It would prove to be an expensive miss. Midway through the half, Dejan Stefanovic surprisingly allowed the ball to skim over his head. Heskey crossed from the right, and the ever-lively Chris Sutton, recently arrived from Celtic, sent in a powerful drive that Ashdown gallantly turned over the bar.
On 39 minutes, however, when Heskey nodded the ball down, Sutton’s shrewd dummy enabled Pennant to spin away from the defence, turn sharply and beat Ashdown with his left foot. Portsmouth’s goose was cooked when, on 56 minutes, Pennant swung in a corner from the left and Upson was palpably allowed a free run in to head the ball past Ashdown for Birmingham’s third. Mwaruwari, partnered by the Polish international Emmanuel Olisadebe, who in truth did far less than Pericard, then eluded both Birmingham centre-backs for a shot which Maik Taylor resourcefully turned round his near post.
In the closing minutes, Pennant had a strong free kick turned behind by Ashdown and at the death, indeed the death for Pompey, both Birmingham substitutes scored, Mikael Forssell from the spot, after being brought down by Noe Pamarot, and David Dunn after skilfully eluding his man. Afterwards, Steve Bruce, Birmingham’s manager, reflected: “The big players are back, and of course they did their stuff. The addition of Chris Sutton to the squad has given the boys an immense lift. You can see why he has gone for all those millions of pounds. Pennant? He’s exciting, isn’t he? A dying breed. He’s young and when he came this time last year, to be fair, he lifted everybody.
“When he’s in full flow like he was today he’s unplayable because his feet are so quick. He’s an old-fashioned type of winger. We hope it’s a turning point for us; we can see a bit of light.”
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Bruce was further encouraged by the fact that his two goal-scoring substitutes, so long hampered by injury, especially in the unfortunate case of Dunn, “looked physically fit again, which we’ve been waiting for”.
Portsmouth’s Harry Redknapp inevitably was less happy. “It takes a miracle for us to survive but miracles happen,” he said. “I came in at half- time and thought if we could get the next goal we’d be back in the game. Unfortunately, they get a corner, we don’t pick up; Upson gets a free header. It’s a squad that is woefully weak. I brought four players in, but we’re still well short.”
There was one slight consolation when he legitimately added: “I thought Mwaruwari worked hard up front; he was always a threat.”
STAR MAN: Jermaine Pennant (Birmingham)
Player ratings. Birmingham: Maik Taylor 8, Melchiot 6, Cunningham 6 (Kilkenny 82min, 6), Upson 7, Lazaridis 6, Pennant 9, Izzet 6, Johnson 6, Jarosik 6 (Dunn 75min, 6), Sutton 7, Heskey 6 (Forssell 77min, 6)
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Portsmouth: Ashdown 6, Pamarot 6, O’Brien 6, Stefanovic 6, Griffin 6 (Priske 82min), O’Neil 6, Davis 6, Mendes 6, Matthew Taylor 6, Mwaruwari 7, Pericard 6 (Olisadebe 52min)
Referee: C Foy
Attendance: 29,138