JONATHAN GREENING’s four-year-old son has been coming home from school wondering why classmates call his father a “loser” but yesterday the West Brom captain showed he was anything but, getting his side back into the game with a goal early in the second half and then winning a free kick from which the visitors scored their second.

In truth, West Brom owed something to David James, who had one of those days that must make Fabio Capello quake in his boots. James’ fluffed clearance led to the away side’s opening goal and he was also flat footed as Chris Brunt swept in a free kick, though Graeme Dorrans might have got a touch that deceived the goalkeeper.

James’ embarrassment was eased by his Croatian teammate Niko Kranjcar, who swept in a free kick to rescue a point that could yet prove valuable as Portsmouth try to keep clear of the relegation scrap. West Brom needed a victory to give them any chance of avoiding relegation, as Tony Mowbray acknowledged afterwards.

“For long spells we gave them problems and controlled the game, but we couldn’t hold on to the three points,” Mowbray said. “Earlier in the season this would have been a good result, but we needed a win.”

With Jermaine Pennant restored to the team, Portsmouth early on looked in the mood to dominate their opponents, as the winger tortured Paul Robinson down the right-hand side. Pennant set up Kranjcar from a corner, but the shot deflected off the outside of Scott Carson’s right-hand post. Then from another Pennant break down the right on 33 minutes, Younes Kaboul picked the ball up inside the penalty area, feinted to take Jonas Olsson out of the game and curled a sweet left-footed shot into the top corner of the net for his first league goal for his club.

Four minutes into the second half, however, came the moment when James allowed West Brom back into the game. With the ball bobbing round the penalty area, Hayden Mullins poked out a foot that sent the ball back to the keeper. It probably wouldn’t have constituted a back pass but James had only a split second to make the decision and he decided to kick clear. The ball got barely three yards to James Morrison and then James could only parry the shot into the path of Greening, who scored.

West Brom’s midfield then started to get a real grip on the game and Mullins was forced to foul Greening on the edge of the box to prevent the midfielder shooting. Brunt blasted the ball towards goal and Mowbray said afterwards that the ball came off the backside of Dorrans and ended up in the back of the net as James barely moved.

The lead only lasted for three minutes as Portsmouth won a free kick 25 yards out, and Kranjcar swept in a free kick that flew past Carson into the top corner of the net.

He then had a chance to score the winner but volleyed over when set up in the box by a Peter Crouch header. Paul Hart, the Portsmouth manager, said: “Without taking away anything from West Brom maybe they played with more freedom today because of the situation they are in, but we didn’t go under. We showed resilience and mental toughness to get a point.

“Maybe two months ago we wouldn’t have fought our way back into the game. We are not absolutely sprinting over the line to survival but we are clawing our way there and if needs be, we will continue to crawl. We’ve gone up two places and are on our best run since October with 10 points from seven games. We didn’t play well but we came away with a point.”

Star man: Jonathan Greening (West Brom)

Yellow cards: Portsmouth: Hreidarsson, Kranjcar, Kaboul WBA: Dorrans

Referee: M Dean

Attendance: 20,376

PORTSMOUTH: James 5, Kaboul 7, Campbell 6, Distin 6, Hreidarsson 5, Pennant 7 (Gekas 90min), Mullins 6, Hughes 6, Nugent 5 (Belhadj 64min), Kranjcar 6, Crouch 5

WEST BROM: Carson 6, Zuiverloon 6 (Hoefkens 77 min), Meite 6, Olsson 5, Robinson 5, Morrison 7 (Woods 75min), Greening 8, Koren 6, Dorrans 7, Brunt 6 (Mulumbu 81min), Fortune 6