Honours Even At The Walkers Stadium
liecester 1 pompey 1
By Matt Lond & J Bateman
February 17 2003
The top of the table clash at The Walkers Stadium ended in a draw with Leicester's Trevor Benjamin putting Leicester in front only for Matthew Taylor to deservedly equalise for Pompey.
Nationwide League Division One
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Att: 31,775 |
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Portsmouth came from behind to win a share of the spoils in a clash of the First Division's top two at the Walkers Stadium.
Matthew Taylor scored Pompey's equaliser from long range after Trevor Benjamin had opened the scoring for the home side.
In a cagey and at times scrappy meeting, the teams did enough to maintain their billing as favourites for automatic promotion to the Premiership and they are now 13 points clear of the chasing pack led by Sheffield United, who have got 3 games in hand on the pair.
Leicester took an early lead when Portsmouth defender Arjan de Zeeuw failed to control the ball as the ball then fell into the path of Benjamin, who hooked it past Shaka Hislop.
Pompey looked to respond after that ninth-minute shock but Foxes goalkeeper Ian Walker was equal to Svetoslav Todorov's effort.
Both teams created chances after but failed to take them, Paul Dickov failed to take a second-half chance to when he dragged his shot wide and Pompey captain Paul Merson went close before a last-ditch Frank Sinclair tackle denied Todorov.
The equaliser did come though, in the 65th minute courtesy of Taylor, after hard work and a great ball from the outside of the right foot from Merson, which set Taylor up and he took up a good position to spectacularly curl the ball off the inside of the post and in it went.
Taylor was once again looking dangerous and could have made it 2-1 to Portsmouth but failed to threaten Walker from close range.