Report by Ben Davis

This latest defeat has left Terry Fenwick's side bottom of division one and things are looking extremely gloomy. The day was doubly bad for chairman Terry Venables whose Australian national side failed to beat Iran to the last World Cup place. The only bright thing on a dreadful day all round was the return of Mathias Svensson who came on for the last 16 minutes.
Paul Hall and Fitzroy Simpson returned to the starting line-up after their success in Jamaica. Martin Allen surprisingly returned to the midfield alongside Alan McLoughlin who was also back from international duty. Russell Perrett and Sammy Igoe dropped to the bench with Andy Turner being dropped altogether.
Pompey had an early scare when Hughes fell to the ground after Whitbread's challenge in the area, but referee Scot Mathieson turned down the home side's appeals for a penalty. The pressure was certainly on Pompey and Robinson should have put Birmingham in front when he nicked the ball off Hillier in the area. However, he scuffed the shot with Whitbread turning it behind for a corner.
Simpson got in Pompey's first shot of the afternoon when he latched onto Hillier's pull back but it flew miles over. Awford was then brought crashing to the ground after a McCarthy challenge. The Birmingham midfielder received the first yellow card of the match and Awford recovered enough to carry on.
Birmingham's new player Tony Cottee, on-loan from Leicester, had a good chance from Ablett's knock-down but his control let him down and Knight, making his 650th appearance, gathered. The striker though missed an absolute sitter on the half-hour. Furlong latched onto a mix-up between Whitbread and Awford, and with Knight struggling to make his ground the striker squared it to Cottee who amazingly fired over with an open goal in front of him.
Five minutes later Pompey stunned the home crowd by taking the lead. McCarthy played a weak back pass to Bennett which let Hall in and he held his nerve to fire in off the far post. Pompey's concentration though went missing as Birmingham equalised 30 seconds later. McCarthy did well down the right to whip in a cross which Furlong headed against the bar, Cottee hit the rebound against the post, and Furlong finally tapped it in.
The pattern continued the same with Birmingham putting Pompey's defence under pressure and some gutsy defending in torrential rain kept them out, but Fenwick would have been so disappointed to see his side throw away a vital lead.
Hall, who had looked Pompey's best player in the first half, got away down the right from Durnin's pass and after getting into the area he fired in a poor shot with Durnin free at the far post. The visitors were looking far more positive but the final pass was letting them down with Pethick and Hall guilty of not finding a yellow shirted player in the box from right sided crosses.
Both sides were finding it hard going in the horrible conditions although Birmingham were the more threatening now with Hughes curling a shot just over and Cottee inches away from connecting with a Johnson cross. In the 65th minute Fenwick stunned the away fans by taking off Allen for Perrett with the manager reverting to a wing-back system. The fans immediately shouted for Svensson's introduction.
Five minutes later the tricky winger Peter Ndlovu came on for Robinson. His pace gave Pethick problems straight away but credit went to the Pompey man for dealing with the substitute. In the 73rd minute Birmingham did take the lead which is what they deserved for the more inventive play. Substitute Devlin put in a cross from the right which was headed home by Furlong for his second goal of the match.
Svensson came on two minutes later for Simpson, but it looked as though it was too late for the striker to settle in. In fact it was Birmingham who looked the more likely to score with Knight having to make a brilliant save when he turned over Devlin's fierce shot from 8 yards. Time was running out when Igoe came on for Hillier and had Ndlovu done better with a decent chance everything might have been more academic.
Pompey couldn't find anything out of the hat and with Huddersfield winning it leaves the club bottom of the division and a long winter in sight. Many Pompey fans will now wait and see what Venables will do now that Australia are not going to France next year.