Fabrice Muamba and Damien Johnson in control of midfield contest

Mar 13 2008 By Colin Tattum

FABRICE Muamba and Damien Johnson outshone their central midfield rivals last night.

Portsmouth, who made three changes from the team who defeated Manchester United in the FA Cup quarter-finals, could never wrestle control in the middle of the park.

And Muamba, back to form after a wretched time against Spurs, notched his first professional goal.

"They were real dogs of war," said Blues manager Alex McLeish.

"Muamba's breaking up of play was probably as good as I've seen.

"He took great heart form scoring his first goal for the club.

"I was pleased with the contribution of the two midfield boys."

McLeish felt Blues could have forced a 3-3 draw had it not been for David James' reactions to stop Cameron Jerome's instinctive volley going in with 13 minutes left.

"We came very, very close, Jerome nearly got us an equaliser.

"If he had scored that, we would have got something from the game."