Perrin soon at home with five-star team

Portsmouth 4 Charlton Athletic

They may not beat your side in their weekly kickabout but Portsmouth's dream team certainly helped deliver victory and, probably, Premiership salvation at a nervous Fratton Park on Saturday.

They may not beat your side in their weekly kickabout but Portsmouth's dream team certainly helped deliver victory and, probably, Premiership salvation at a nervous Fratton Park on Saturday.

No, the dream team is not the likes of Steve Stone, Lomana LuaLua or Yakubu Aiyegbeni, although they all played their part in this deserved win. It is the hotchpotch of a new manager, coaches, consultants, and not forgetting the chairman, all of whom have had their input in the last few eventful days down on the South Coast.

To recap, the Frenchman Alain Perrin took over as manager last Thursday, four months after Harry Redknapp left the club. In the interim, Joe Jordan had been running the first team with Velimir Zajec, a Croat originally appointed as the director of football. Not to forget, Perrin has been handed David Pleat as his aide-de-camp. And behind this all, the Pompey chairman, Milan Mandaric.

This is a five-a-side with a difference, a quintet of middle-aged men trying to keep Portsmouth's head above the choppy relegation waters. Five defeats in their previous six games meant Mandaric had to act. The team had lost their way under Jordan and Zajec's stewardship, meaning that the unemployed Perrin was drafted in on a contract lasting until June 2007.

The effect the former Troyes and Marseilles coach had was instantaneous. He had claimed he would not take charge for this game as he knew so little about his players, let alone the opposition. He made nonsense of that statement straight away as he appeared in his technical area, looking calm and composed in his crisp, grey suit, a bag rounding off a look that was more Mourinho than Moyes.

Quickly, Perrin made up his mind to direct his charges from the dug-out. He is confident he is a fast learner, saying: "Last Thursday I thought it was difficult to coach a team I did not know but after two training sessions I knew the players and the team because I met them and had information. I saw the quality of the players, also."

Alan Curbishley, Perrin's counterpart but with 10 years as sole manager at Charlton, feared some sort of reaction to the Frenchman's appointment and he was right. Pompey were ahead quickly through Yakubu and then Stone, both with headers. Jonathan Fortune and Danny Murphy brought the Londoners back into it but they did not compete after the interval and Diomansy Kamara's header and LuaLua's late run and shot completed the scoring.

The first team did what was asked of them and that five-man outfit shows every sign of doing their bit too.

Goals: Yakubu (3) 1-0; Stone (20) 2-0; Fortune (22) 2-1; Murphy (45) 2-2; Kamara (83) 3-2; LuaLua (90) 4-2.

Portsmouth (4-4-2): Ashdown; Cissé, De Zeeuw, Stefanovic, Taylor (Primus, 80); Stone, Skopelitis (Kamara, 60), R Hughes, Berger (Rodic, 72); LuaLua, Yakubu. Substitutes not used: Chalkias (gk), O'Neil.

Charlton Athletic (4-4-2): Kiely; Young, Fortune, Perry (Johansson, 88), Hreidarsson; Kishishev (Thomas, 19) Holland, Murphy, Konchesky; Jeffers, Bartlett (Lisbie, 61). Substitutes not used: Andersen (gk), B Hughes.

Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).

Booked: Portsmouth LuaLua; Charlton Perry, Hreidarsson, Murphy.

Man of the match: LuaLua.

Attendance: 20,108.