Kidd to help out Hart at Pompey

Brian Kidd has been brought in by Premier League strugglers Portsmouth to assist caretaker manager Paul Hart following the sacking of Tony Adams.

Kidd, for many years Sir Alex Ferguson’s deputy at Manchester United, will work with Hart while Portsmouth continue their search for a new permanent manager to replaced former England captain Adams.

“Brian’s a fantastic coach with a great track record,” Hart told the club’s website, portsmouthfc.co.uk, on Wednesday: “We’ve known each other for an awfully long time and I’m delighted he’s coming here to assist me.”

Earlier Tuesday, Portsmouth executive chairman Peter Storrie defended the decision to sack Adams, promoted from assistant manager when Harry Redknapp joined Tottenham in October, although he did say the Arsenal great had been “very, very unlucky” during his 16 games in charge.

The south coast side won just two of those matches and are currently just one point above the relegation zone.

Their next two games are at home to Manchester City and away to Stoke, and Storrie said: “I feel we have been very, very supportive of Tony but he’s been a very, very unlucky manager.

“We’ve played well in games and not finished games off, there have been individual mistakes, but it was a point where we had to say, ‘How many more games can we continue to be unlucky in?’.

“We have two vital matches coming up where we have to get points from and we felt we had to make the change now rather than later.”

However, Storrie said he still believed Portsmouth had the players to retain their top-flight status.

“Tony said it and I think that’s right, I’d much rather have the squad we have than six or seven other people down there fighting with us

“We need to gel together, cut out the mistakes and just get going and get a couple of results. We must do everything we can to stay in the Premier League. It’s a result business.”