LAST TIME Fratton Park opened its gates, there were 11 goals. Yesterday evening one looked unlikely for 92 minutes. Then Danny Gabbidon appeared to nudge Niko Kranjcar on the edge of the penalty area. Referee Mike Dean awarded a penalty. Benjani Mwaruwari hit it Robert Green’s right, the goalkeeper saved it, justice was done and West Ham United had their deserved draw.

It was the least they deserved after Portsmouth’s whirlwind start petered out into a mild breeze and West Ham, who began looking shellshocked, finished in the ascendancy and had not Nolberto Solano somehow contrived to miss two chances of mind-boggling simplicity, they would have wended their way back up the A3 with three points to their name. Instead they left grateful to Green for the point they came with. Portsmouth kicked off in splendid heart. With their colours unlowered since the second day of September, with Zimbabwe forward Benjani Mwaruwari in the goalscoring form of his life and with the location of their new 36,000 stadium confirmed as Horsea Island. Pompey have surely not chimed louder since Jimmy Dickinson was in his pomp. Little wonder, then, manager Harry Redknapp used his programme notes to eulogise “the strongest side I’ve had at Pompey”.

Moreover, they faced a West Ham ravaged by injury, but still displaying their traditional inconsistency. Manager Alan Curbishley still found time to juggle his remaining resources and give Luis Boa Morte his first Premiership start since the season’s opening day ahead of Matthew Etherington. Naturally, there would be no repeat of the 11-goal orgy of defensive disaster when Reading came to Portsmouth, and the six years since his bitter departure have sucked the poison from Redknapp’s reunions with his erstwhile employers.

With the returning Pedro Mendes protecting his defence like a famished guard dog and a similarly eager midfield pushing up to support Mwaruwari, Portsmouth swept forwards. Twice in the first 10 minutes Green, England’s forgotten goalkeeper, set out his own agile stall, first tipping over Kranjcar’s swirling drive and then reacting with supreme athleticism after Gabbidon inadvertently deflected Hermann Hreidarsson’s low cross goalwards.

What then of West Ham? Unsettled by Portsmouth’s pace and power and with Craig Bellamy in one of his more petulant moods when faced with the mighty oak that is Hreidarsson – that the squabbling pair took 25 minutes to get themselves booked was a measure only of referee Mike Dean’s indulgent nature – they resorted to long balls towards their lugubrious lone striker Carlton Cole and hoped the Portsmouth storm would blow itself out.

Strangely, it did. In the24th minute, Cole did rouse himself to put over a teasing cross, but the unmarked Nolberto Solano failed to make contact with a free header five yards out. Four minutes later, the Peruvian almost redeemed himself with a lofted free kick that David James smartly tipped over.

Presumably waylaid by his hamstrings once more, Bellamy did not reappear for the second period. Curbishley retained his formation and utilised Etherington’s more orthodox winged gifts. Green once more had to be on his mettle, flying across his goal to parry Mwaruwari’s stinging drive, but his colleagues – in particular the doughty Boa Morte – were not without resolution and without summoning a head of steam, they began to sense the evening need not be entirely about containment.

Indeed, just after the hour, they really should have scored. Etherington fed Cole, who spun neatly round a statuesque Sol Campbell and fired against the bar. The rebound fell perfectly for Solano. Again unmarked, again inside the six-yard box, he fluffed his golden chance, feebly heading wide of the open goal. The visitors held their heads; the rest of Fratton Park exhaled with relief.

As what had been a reasonably absorbing stalemate drew to a close, both teams had their moments of menace, especially Nwankwo Kanu’s stoppage-time drive which whistled by Green’s post.

Star man: Robert Green (West ham)

Player ratings: Portsmouth: James 6, Johnson 6, Campbell 6, Distin 6, Hreidarsson 6, Mendes 7, Utaka 5 (Kanu 77min), Diop 6, Muntari 6, Kranjcar 6, Mwaruwari 6

West Ham United: Green 7, Neill 6, Gabbidon 7, Upson 6, McCartney 6, Bellamy 6 (Etherington ht, 7), Solano 4 (Spector 78min), Mullins 6, Noble 7, Boa Morte 7, Cole 6