Portsmouth make their point at West Ham

West Ham flirted with occasional danger but escaped with a point after holding Portsmouth to a goalless draw at Upton Park here on Saturday.

With England boss Fabio Capello in attendance West Ham manager Gianfranco Zola named a three-man front line consisting of Carlton Cole, back after a ban, Freddie Sears and Craig Bellamy.

Tony Adams, who celebrated his first win since taking over from Harry Redknapp as Portsmouth manager with last week’s success over Sunderland, had to make do without injured duo Sol Campbell and Niko Kranjcar.

Portsmouth almost took a 15th minute lead when former West Ham player Glenn Johnson laid the ball on to Jermain Defoe but with keeper Robert Green bearing down on him the striker’s shot went high and wide.

Johnson was proving troublesome for the West Ham defence and on 27 minutes he charged in from the right to shoot from the edge of the box only for Green to have the move covered.

The London club were fortunate not to go behind ten minutes later when a Defoe shot was deflected off Herita Ilunga’s leg with the ball edging the wrong side of the post.

Zola replaced Sears with Matthew Etherington at the start of the second half as Portsmouth went in search of the goal their positive attacking deserved with Green forced to produce two quick fire saves to deny Defoe.

Bellamy hit the crossbar with a looping freekick from the edge of the box after the hour mark to give the Hammers hope of ending a six match winless run.

That effort apart the home side rarely threatened to leave Adams with his first clean sheet since assuming control.