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On Saturday, five matches of the English Premier League were played. After them, the leader changed - last season barely avoiding relegation to a lower division, Portsmouth team climbed to the first place.
This time, Harry Redknapp's team won 1-0 after a tough battle against Charlton in an away game, inflicting their fourth defeat. The only goal of the match was scored by striker Lomana LuaLua who came on as a substitute.
The first half of the match was fiercely contested, with both teams having opportunities to score. Initially, several good opportunities were missed by Charlton's attacking leader Marcus Bent, and later by Portsmouth's newcomer from Nigeria, Nwankwo Kanu. However, both teams went into halftime goalless.
In the second half, Charlton took the initiative but could not convert it into a goal. Meanwhile, in the second part of the match, Portsmouth managed to score only one accurate shot on goal, but secured the victory - in the 74th minute, L. LuaLua's shot rebounded off a defender and flew into the net guarded by Scott Carson.
"We continue our successful game from the end of last season when we earned twenty points in the last ten matches," rejoiced Portsmouth manager H. Redknapp. "For now, we are just doing great.
"I hope we can climb higher than 13th place this season."
Having secured their fourth victory and once again playing on equal terms, Portsmouth players have 13 points, leading ahead of Manchester United who have played one less match by one point.
In the next match, Everton lost their first two points after crushing Wigan without mercy in the previous round. Scoring the fifth goal of the season in the 49th minute, Liverpool's forward Andrew Johnson took his team ahead, but shortly after, Paul Scharner equalized with a precise header.
Just six minutes later, Gary Teale's foul in the penalty area was converted by James Beattie into a precise shot from the 11-meter spot, and Everton once again took the lead - 2-1. Several moments of goal rain ended with P. Scharner finishing off Tim Howard for the second time.
Debuting quite successfully in the Premier League, Reading won 2-1 as guests today against another debutant Sheffield.
The first goal came after just sixteen seconds - Irish national team forward Kevin Doyle caught the unprepared home team goalkeeper Ian Bennett off guard and sent the ball into the net. In the 25th minute, forward Seol Ki-Hyeon doubled the lead with a low shot.
However, in the 61st minute, Rob Hulse softened the result, but despite all efforts, in the final moments Reading celebrated the victory and climbed to a high 8th place.
Meanwhile, two other matches ended goalless - Bolton and Middlesbrough, as well as Watford and Aston Villa, shared one point each.
Saturday results:
0 - 1 74' [0 - 1] Lomana LuaLua
0 - 0
2 - 2 49' [1 - 0] Andrew Johnson 62' [1 - 1] Paul Scharner 66' [2 - 1] James Beattie (from the 11-meter penalty) 68' [2 - 2] Paul Scharner
1 - 2 1' [0 - 1] Kevin Doyle 25' [0 - 2] Seol Ki-Hyeon 61' [1 - 2] Rob Hulse
0 - 0
League table:
