It's difficult to pin down exactly why almost the same Pompey side that were excellent on Saturday performed so poorly yesterday. John Utaka can't make that much of a difference can he!?
Avram Grant blames fatigue and our performance was laboured right from the start. Pompey players kept getting in each other's way, mistakes were constantly being made in the defence and nobody had the confidence to take a shot when we did attack.
In truth, Birmingham's win never looked in doubt from the moment Jerome gave them the lead after the sluggish Pompey defence failed to pick him up.
Chucho Benitez, who had been booked earlier in the game for diving, was gifted a glorious chance to double Birmingham's lead when the linesman failed to call a blatant offside. However, David James did extremely well to make himself big and thwart the Ecuadorian as the defence came back to the rescue.
But Birmingham's lead was doubled when Jerome rushed onto a backheel and slotted past James who dived over the ball. There was a hint of offside about the move but it would be hypocritical to complain about the decision given the "goal that never was" on Saturday.
The second half was a damp squib. Wilson and Webber were off and Basinas and Owusu-Abeyie were on but it made little difference. Mistakes were still being made, there was no flow to Pompey's play whilst Birmingham were happy to sit on their lead and counter-attack.
It wasn't until stoppage time that Joe Hart was forced into a save and from the resulting corner Kanu headed in a goal but it was too little, too late and Pompey fell to yet another home defeat.
In all honesty, the result won't matter and I have plenty of praise for the fans who turned up and made sure there was at least an atmosphere at Fratton Park. We won the match that mattered, but we will have to play much better than that if we want to win at Wembley on Sunday, April 11th.
Pompey Player Ratings
David James: 7 - Some good saves but maybe could have done better with the second goal.
Steve Finnan: 5 - Sluggish showing.
Hermann Hreidarsson: 6 - Did OK.
Tal Ben-Haim: 5 - Performance was littered with mistakes.
Nadir Belhadj: 6 - Put in some good crosses.
Michael Brown: 5 - Lethargic.
Marc Wilson: 6 - Was OK until withdrawal.
Jamie O'Hara: 5 - Poor by his high standards.
Aruna Dindane: 5 - Wasted as a wing forward.
Danny Webber: 5 - Ineffective.
Frederic Piquionne: 6 - No decent service.
Substitutes
Jamie Ashdown
Aaron Mokoena
Hayden Mullins
Papa Bouba Diop
Angelos Basinas (Wilson 46): 6 - Solid but unspectacular.
Kanu (Brown 65): 6 - Did nothing until he scored late on.
Quincy Owusu-Abeyie: 6 - Lively but no major threat.