Aston Villa 1-3 Portsmouth

Two outstanding strikes from Sulley Muntari helped Portsmouth to a sixth straight away win against a shell-shocked Aston Villa.

Villa dominated the first half but fell behind early on when scrappy play in their penalty area led to Craig Gardner prodding the ball into his own net.

Muntari's first was a left foot strike from 25 yards and he then beat two defenders to score with a low shot.

A late penalty for Gareth Barry was little reward for Villa.

Portsmouth had not won in the top-flight at Villa Park for 52 years but they ultimately deserved to end that miserable record if only because of the brilliant goals from Muntari, who produced the two rays of sunshine on a rain-lashed afternoon.

As in keeping with the conditions, for large parts of the first half play was scrappy.

As indeed was Portsmouth's opening goal after just 10 minutes. From a corner the ball fell to Noe Pamarot on the wide right.

Wilfred Bouma failed to deal with Pamarot's miscued shot and in the confusion Craig Gardner prodded the ball into his own net and past a stranded Scott Carson.

That was harsh on Villa who pressed hard for the equaliser and they were offered two, gilt-edged chances to do so.

Both fell to Martin Laursen, who will rue those missed opportunities. In the 18th minute, his free header was saved by David James, and just two minutes later he squandered an even better chance.

Ashley Young's free kick found him totally unmarked but this time he headed wide from just five yards out. It was almost a carbon-copy of his earlier chance - only easier.

Further chances fell to Gabriel Agbonlahor and Gareth Barry in a first half Villa controlled.

But they were made to pay the penalty with the first of Muntari's screamers after 40 minutes. The villa defence failed to close him down as he fired a left-footed shot into the top right-hand corner from 25 yards. It was an unlikely end to the first half.

Muntari's second shortly into the second period was even better. He robbed Nigel Reo-Coker in the Villa half and nutmegged Zat Knight before shooting low into the bottom corner.

Villa didn't deserve to be three nil down and they responded well, although they only had a single goal to show for their efforts and that came from the penalty spot.

It was awarded when Distin was adjudged to have brought down Ashley Young on the edge of the box with a quite unnecessary challenge and Gareth Barry stepped up to reduce the deficit.

Villa continued to seek a way through with Patrick Berger firing over the bar and Olof Mellberg shooting wide.

But as they pressed, Portsmouth threatened to do even worse damage on the break with Papa Bouba Diop guilty of a terrible miss late on.

Source: BBC Sport