The gameplan must have been not to concede early but unfortunately it only took United nine minutes to take the lead after Ryan Giggs squared to Rooney inside for an easy finish, although from where I was sitting it looked like the Welshman may have been offside.
The home side could have had more goals if it wasn't for some poor finishing on their behalf and some good goalkeeping from David James who kept the scoreline respectable all night.
The most disappointing thing for me all night is that we hardly tested Edwin Van Der Sar. There were a couple of opportunities down our right when we got into dangerous positions and were crying for a goal poacher to get on the end of a cross into the box.
Our possession play was good, especially our passing in the second half but a lack of incisive play and attacking players on the pitch was evident as United cruised most of the game in third gear.
But at 1-0 you always maintain the hope that you might snatch an unlikely equaliser but unfortunately that hope was extinguished after Michael Carrick added a second goal late on as our defence was split by a single pass from Paul Scholes.
After that it was simply a case of defending a two goal deficit to ensure our goal difference didn't take a hammering. It didn't and we escaped Old Trafford with our pride in tact and just a minor injury to David Nugent to worry about.
I'm relatively pleased with our performance against arguably the best team on the planet, especially in the second half. I was impressed with the midfield trio who contained United quite well and our centre backs did a good job against two of the best attacking players in the world.
Our unbeaten run is gone but if we can perform like we did yesterday but with a bit more cutting edge at Newcastle on Monday then I'm confident we can get a result.
Pompey Player Ratings
David James: 8 - Some excellent goalkeeping to keep us in the game.
Glen Johnson: 6 - Good going forward on occasion but caught out at the back too often.
Sol Campbell: 7 - Strong in the challenge.
Sylvain Distin: 7 - Handled Ronaldo well.
Hermann Hreidarsson: 6 - Struggled with United's pace.
David Nugent: 5 - Off injured at half-time.
Sean Davis: 7 - Composed figure in the centre.
Hayden Mullins: 7 - Best game for Pompey.
Richard Hughes: 6 - Got stuck in.
Nadir Belhadj: 6 - Good going forward but left defence exposed.
Peter Crouch: 6 - Could do nothing with little service but worked hard.
Substitutes
Asmir Begovic
Martin Cranie
Noe Pamarot
Angelos Basinas
John Utaka
Jermaine Pennant (Nugent 46): 6 - Looked a threat down the right but lacked a good final ball.
Kanu