Pizzas galore!

On came Kanu at a time when some flair was badly required. He did come up with one shot of merit — and the decisive finish.

Overall, though, it was an end-of-season contest between two clubs still concerned about their status.

Kranjcar has a twisted ankle and is not likely to be fit to face Manchester United on Wednesday. Hart said: “We’ve sent him for an x-ray straight away and he’ll probably have a scan on Monday. His ankle’s a little swollen and it looks like he’s got some ligament damage, but we won’t know the degree of that damage until Monday. It’s a blow, because he’s been doing really well and he’s an important part of what we do.”

Club doctor Nigel Sellars added: “At the time it did not look too good, but when he got back to the dressing room, he was able to put weight on his ankle.”

“Both teams looked nervy,” admitted Bolton manager Gary Megson. “We do not set out to be a defensive team, but we do set out to be solid. We are not over the line to safety yet — we know there can be a huge turnaround, looking at the run-ins clubs have. Even if we had achieved a victory, we would still not have been certain of staying up.”

You could sense the tension that still afflicts his club by the way his shaky hand was fiddling with his tie. The spectre of relegation in April has this effect on the most experienced of old pros.

Star man:Sol Campbell (Portsmouth)

Yellow cards: Portsmouth: Kranjcar, Distin. Bolton:Davies, O’Brien, Hunt, McCann.

Referee:P Dowd.

Attendance:20,158.

PORTSMOUTH: James 6, Kaboul 5 (Pennant 90min), Campbell 8, Distin 7, Hreidarsson 5, Davis 5, Johnson 7, Mullins 5, Kranjcar 6 (Belhadj 77min), Nugent 5 (Kanu 71min), Crouch 5.

BOLTON WANDERERS:Jaaskelainen 7, Steinsson 5, O’Brien 5, Cahill 5, Samuel 5, Davies 5, McCann 5, Basham 5, Gardner 4 (Muamba 12min, 5), Taylor 5, Elmander 5.