Portsmouth Res 1

Albion Res 0

Teenage defender Matt Ottley was sent off after just 18 minutes as Albion suffered an unfortunate Combination defeat at Fratton Park last night.

Ottley was booked on 13 minutes following an innocuous foul, then slid in from behind on Robbie Simpson and saw red.

The dismissal meant Albion abandoned their defensive strategy of playing Ian Chapman at sweeper between Ottley and Gary Hobson.

Despite the re-shuffle, they still looked the most lively side for most of the first half.

Strong-running new striker Lawrence Davies almost edged them ahead when he beat a couple of tackles and saw his shot deflect a foot wide.

But Portsmouth clinched the lead on 42 minutes when a corner eventually fell to Simpson, whose 8 yard volley bobbled just inside the post.

Goalkeepers Aaron Flahavan and Mark Ormerod made one excellent reflex save apiece after the break.

Flahavan's heroics came on 55 minutes. Dean Martin produced the cross of the night and Lawrence Davies's bullet header produced a superb tip over from the home keeper.

Ormerod conjured up an almost identical save 7 minutes later, but he was otherwise untroubled as the 10 men kept battling.

Portsmouth: Flahavan, Pethick, Russell, Hillier, Perrett, Connolly, McNab (sub. MacDonald 75 mins), Soley, Simpson, Nightingale (sub. Eastman 75 mins), Phillips (sub. Barnett 75).

Albion: Ormerod, Smith, Mayo, Ottley, Chapman, Hobson, Martin, Davis (sub. Ramsay 83 min), Davies, Moralee, Ryan (sub. Wilkinson 78 mins), Unused sub. Burke.

Referee: Wendy Toms (Poole)

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.