Avram Grant's men started off the better side and held their ultra-rich counterparts for the first 40 minutes of the game. In fact, we could have even had the lead after a brilliant backheel from Utaka in the box found Vanden Borre whose shot deflected onto the crossbar and out to O'Hara who couldn't force in the rebound.
But just when the thoughts of going into the break level started to enter my mind, one long ball caught out the Pompey defence and Emmanuel Adebayor took two touches before smashing the ball past David James.
TV replays showed that the Togo striker was marginally offside, which pretty much sums our season up on the pitch but not content with rubbing salt into the wounds, City poured acid on them just before half-time.
David James fumbled Tevez's shot out for a corner on the 45th minute and Kompany powered in a header which effectively won the game for the world's richest football club.
However, I will give full credit to our players for not rolling over and letting City score four more like they did last season. They kept going and managed to create chances, but the day was summed up when Wilson's strike hit Piquionne and went straight into the arms of Shay Given.
Add that to the earlier chance that Webber had when he slipped up with the goal at his mercy after Given could only parry Basinas' long range effort, and you knew it just wasn't going to be our day..... again.
Pompey will be thankful that Tevez hit the post late on when he looked certain to score, but our fans will be encouraged by this performance and hopefully we can repeat this performance at Fulham on Wednesday, who have lost their last five games.
Of course, we'd need to be able to field a full team then and depending on how many players Daniel Azougy wants to sell by 5pm tomorrow, we might not be able to do that.
Pompey Player Ratings
David James: 5 - Spilled simple shot that led to City's corner, which they scored from.
Anthony Vanden Borre: 7 - Got forward really well.
Marc Wilson: 6 - Solid enough.
Tal Ben-Haim: 6 - Will be hard for him to replace Kaboul.
Hermann Hreidarsson: N/A - Off early because of injury.
Hayden Mullins: 5 - Didn't really offer much.
Angelos Basinas: 6 - Some good passing.
Jamie O'Hara: 7 - Showed how much we've missed him.
Kevin-Prince Boateng: 6 - Too selfish with some awful long range efforts.
Danny Webber: 6 - Some good runs but wasted golden opportunity.
John Utaka: 7 - Made some good runs and caused some problems.
Substitutes
Jamie Ashdown
Leonard Sowah
Steve Finnan (Hreidarsson 27): 6 - Kept things tight.
Richard Hughes
Matt Ritchie
Quincy Owusu-Abeyie (Mullins 87): N/A - Didn't even notice him!
Frederic Piquionne (Webber 77): N/A - Saving energy for Fulham?