Redknapp joy as Spurs add to Pompey´s problems

Harry Redknapp enjoyed a winning return to Fratton Park as Tottenham Hotspur beat Premier League basement club Portsmouth 2-1 on Saturday.

Victory kept Spurs in third place and left Portsmouth, who saw Aruna Dindane miss two fine chances, still searching for their first home win of the season.

Ledley King headed Spurs in front from a corner by Pompey old boy Niko Kranjcar before Jermain Defoe, also a former Portsmouth player, made it 2-0. Kevin-Prince Boateng pulled one back moments before Defoe saw red for stamping, but Spurs held on and Pompey had Michael Brown sent-off just before the finish.

Fears of a hostile reception for Redknapp, who led Portsmouth to FA Cup glory in 2008 before departing for White Hart Lane, proved unfounded.

Both sides featured three men who had played for the opposition in recent times, Defoe, Kranjcar and substitute Peter Crouch for Spurs, and Brown, Boateng and Younes Kaboul for Portsmouth.

Defoe had a couple of early chances with one shot coming off the post with England goalkeeper David James beaten.

Dindane then squandered a superb chance with Heurelho Gomes producing heroics in the Spurs goal.

And it was Tottenham who went ahead when King, playing for the first time since September 30 following hamstring trouble, headed home past an out of position James.

Spurs went 2-0 up when Defoe scored his sixth goal of the season following a Jermaine Jenas cross.

But Pompey hit back through Boateng’s first-time shot from the edge of the box when Defoe was dismissed for a stamp on Aaron Mokoena.

Gomes then kept out Hassan Yebda’s volley before Brown was sent-off for a second yellow card offence.