Nugent hands Pompey victory

13 April 2012

Former Preston striker David Nugent will long remember the night he returned to the north-west and silenced his old rivals from Burnley with the decisive goal to put Portsmouth into the fourth round.

Burnley manager Steve Cotterill claimed that Nugent admitted he controlled a pass from Pedro Mendes with his arm before scoring a 69th-minute winner, and the Burnley supporters who had booed him throughout were certainly vociferous in giving their verdict.

Miguel Pedro Mendes of Portsmouth holds off the challenge of James O'Connor

Cotterill made five changes as he tried to cope with a run of seven games in 21 days — with veteran David Unsworth making a rare appearance in midfield — and the Championship side matched their opponents for long periods without ever stretching keeper Jamie Ashdown.

Matt Taylor should have put Pompey ahead before half-time, only to see Gabor Kiraly push away his low, right-foot shot from 10 yards.

But the Hungarian keeper was helpless to stop Nugent when he controlled Mendes' pass suspiciously high up on his arm and slipped the ball past the advancing keeper.

'Apparently, he told our defender, Stephen Jordan, that it was handball,' claimed Cotterill, 'but we'll take it with a pinch of salt.

'It was a great performance, the boys can be proud of the themselves. There's just a tinge of disappointment that we didn't get anything out of the game.'

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