De Zeeuw high and mighty in attack

Portsmouth 1 Gillingham

Sparkling one week and struggling the next, this win by the narrowest of margins ensured Portsmouth's twin ambitions – promotion and winning the First Division title – remain on track but it was as close as the scoreline suggests. Pompey welcomed back Gianluca Festa to their defensive ranks after a long absence but it was his fellow centre-half Arjan De Zeeuw, who only returned to the first team last Monday in the draw at Leicester City, who grabbed the winner. Sound work also in defence by the Dutchman helped Pompey maintain their two-point advantage over Leicester, while Gillingham's faint play-off hopes receded still further.

With Portsmouth slowly asserting their authority, notably when Nigel Quashie forced a smart save from Jason Brown with a shot from 25 yards, it was no real surprise when they scored after 58 minutes. The shock was that it was De Zeeuw who jumped highest to head home Paul Merson's free-kick, as it was the Dutchman's first goal of the season, not including his own goal in the reserves during the week.

Yet there was proof that Pompey can still be fragile, as they could easily have found themselves behind at the interval at Fratton Park. Twice in the space of a minute, Harry Redknapp's men saw Gillingham strikers bearing down on goal, only for first Linvoy Primus and then Shaka Hislop to deny them.

That brace of chances after 26 minutes ran counter to what had gone before, as Pompey pressed the Kent side but found them unyielding and unflinching in every area of the pitch and their player-manager Andy Hessenthaler refused afterwards to give up on the play-offs.

The previous home game had seen Portsmouth hand Derby a 6-2 drubbing and naturally there were expectations of a similarly expansive scoreline against the mid-table men from Kent. A similar result might have been on the cards if the best move of the first half had seen Yakubu Ayegbeni score inside ten minutes. Paul Merson found Matt Taylor and his cross was inches away from being met by the Nigerian.

Then it was Gillingham's turn to test Portsmouth. First Rod Wallace broke into the penalty box and out-muscled Primus only for the centre-back to make a decisive intervention. Then Wallace turned provider immediately after, nodding on a cross for Paul Shaw, whose left-foot shot was well held by Hislop.

Portsmouth 1 Gillingham 0
De Zeeuw 58

Half-time: 0-0 Attendance: 19,521