Green saves happy Hammers

Green: Penalty save

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West Ham goalkeeper Robert Green produced a 95th minute penalty save to rescue a point in the goalless draw with Portsmouth at Fratton Park.

Pompey had been awarded the kick when referee Mike Dean debatably adjudged West Ham defender Danny Gabbidon had handled in the box, but Green produced a dramatic save from Benjani Mwaruwari to leave honours even.

Hammers midfielder Nolberto Solano had earlier been guilty of two glaring misses when he had double opportunities to net what would have proved to be a winning goal, but the Peruvian instead produced two howling headers.

The midfielder's first offence came in the first half, which had been considerably lacking in clear cut goal scoring chances, when he was found by a 23rd minute Carlton Cole cross and somehow managed to head wide from five yards.

After the interval the game continued in the same cagey style, and so did Solano's heading, when he managed to nod wide a 64th minute rebound after Cole had rattled the Pompey cross bar.

Pompey largely called the tune in a first half spoiled by a feud between Craig Bellamy and Hermann Hreidarsson who were both booked.

It was Pompey who threatened first in the second minute with Nico Kranjcar dragging a shot wide from 20 yards.

Pompey were soon back on the attack when John Utaka came inside and released full back Glen Johnson down the right to fashion a fine cross which Gabbidon did well to head away for a corner.

And when Kranjcar took aim again from well outside the box in the eighth minute Green had to make an acrobatic leap to turn the ball over the bar.

Portsmouth's early pressure was relentless and Gabbidon was lucky not to turn a stabbed shot from Benjani into his own net.

There was penalty claim by the visitors when Louis Boa Morte, sprinting through the middle, went down in the area after a challenge by Sylvain Distin. But referee Dean looked on with disdain at West Ham's protests.

Yet it was West Ham, largely under the cosh, who should have gone in front in the 24th minute. Distin knocked away Cole's cross but the striker's second attempt to feed the ball in from the left found Solano sneaking in behind the Pompey defence but failing to get a touch into a gaping net.

Almost immediately at the other end it looked as though Benjani had missed a golden chance with only Green to beat but it was George McCartney's brilliantly-timed last-ditch tackle which sent the ball skewering wide of goal.

Nobby's off form

David James was called into rare action with a tip-over to Solano's curling free-kick but it was a relatively quiet opening half-hour for Portsmouth's former West Ham keeper.

West Ham were niggled again when Sol Campbell, Pompey's last man in defence, went down and won a free-kick as Cole brushed him off and headed on a clear path to goal in the 43rd minute. The Pompey man looked lucky to get away with it.

Bellamy failed to come out for the second half, West Ham replacing their danger man - who had looked frustrated in a right-wing role - with Matthew Etherington.

Green saved West Ham again at the start of the second half, diving to his right to save Kranjcar's whipped free-kick at the foot of a post after Noble had been booked for delaying it.

Benjani miss

And Green excelled again when keeping out Benjani with an even better save two minutes later after Papa Bouba Diop laid the ball back to the Premier League's top scorer at the edge of the area.

Kranjcar was waved on by referee Dean despite a foul on him and threatened to race clear down the left until Neill put in a meaty challenge, and then promptly set up Boa Morte with a similar run at the other end, only for Distin to muscle him out of it.

Portsmouth's passing began to let them down but West Ham were improving in that department and put together a sweeping move that should have put them in front in the 65th minute when Solano again missed a golden chance.

McCartney and Etherington worked a chance down the left for Cole whose shot on the turn crashed off the junction of post and crossbar, but a surprised Solano failed to put the rebound into the net, heading the ball into the ground.

But it was Benjani, five goals in his previous three games, who took the penalty nearly five minutes into stoppage time which hero Green saved to earn the Hammers a point after Gabbidon was ruled to have handled in the area.