Before kick-off Portsmouth’s manager, John Mousinho, suggested all the pressure would be on Sunderland, leaving his players free to relax, improvise and unlock their inner creativity.
It did not quite work out like that but, in one sense, Mousinho was correct. As the final whistle approached Régis Le Bris’s team frequently looked so nervous, or perhaps simply fatigued, that a relegation-threatened Portsmouth side reduced to 10 men by Marlon Pack’s 67th-minute sending off, could conceivably have snatched a late point.
