A CLUB who have taken something of a battering since the beginning of the season suffered another huge blow yesterday when they surrendered their hold on the FA Cup, being comfortably beaten at home by Swansea City. With Harry Redknapp having left Portsmouth, there was evidence in defeat that Tony Adams had taken on a task that is too onerous for him to handle.

Afterwards, Adams put on a brave face but Pompey were so ordinary that at times they made the opposition in the all- white strip look like Real Madrid rather than the representatives of Wales’ second biggest city. The continental ethos instilled in the side by Swansea’s Spanish manager, Roberto Martinez, and the presence of gifted players such as Jordi Gomez also have something to do with that.

However, the man who twisted the knife in Portsmouth was a local boy, Nathan Dyer. Not only is Dyer on loan at Swansea from Southampton, he was also given a community service order after a burglary at a Portsmouth nightclub last July.

Hardly a surprise, then, that Dyer was booed, at least until the point where he scored the opener for Swansea in the 26th minute. When Jason Scotland scored a second goal on half- time from the penalty spot, even then it looked as if there was no way back for Portsmouth and so it proved.

This is only the third time in 40 years that Swansea have reached the fifth round but on this type of form who’s to say that they can’t emulate the achievement of their fiercest rivals, Cardiff City, who reached the final last year?

“We’ve been working hard to try to keep the ball and dictate things in the Championship,” Martinez said. “In that respect I didn’t think we were 10 out of 10 today. There is still room for improvement.”

Martinez had raised some eyebrows by dropping goalkeeper Dorus DeVries to the bench and replacing him with Demitrios Konstantopoulos, a 30-year-old Greek on loan from Coventry whose saves in the

second half proved crucial.

Portsmouth gave a debut to their loan signing, Jermaine Pennant, the Liverpool winger who looked dangerous early on, but nearly all the good play was coming from Swansea, 11 games unbeaten going into this game. Their previous FA Cup tie in these parts resulted in defeat last season to Havant and Waterlooville, but that clearly wasn’t weighing on their shoulders as they took the game to their hosts. David James saved from Gomez and Dyer before Swansea took the lead.

Coming deep, Scotland received the ball on the halfway line by the left touchline and, with Sol Campbell out of position, played a deliciously flighted ball over the top of the

Portsmouth defence. Dyer controlled perfectly and with his next touch smashed the ball past James.

Crouch should have equalised five minutes later when he sidefooted Armand Traore’s cross goalward from inside the six-yard box but he didn’t get enough pace on the ball to beat Konstantopoulus. Still Swansea continued to play all the football, with Leon Britton running everything from the midfield, and Darren Pratley, Angel Rangel and Gomez also comfortable in possession. On the stroke of half-time they scored a second after Gomez made a scorching run down the right and was brought down inside the penalty area by Nadir Belhadj. Scotland sent James the wrong way with the penalty kick to register his 42nd goal in 72 starts. The half-time whistle sounded with Swansea’s supporters going crazy.

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