Portsmouth-Aston Villa: Dream Debut for Emile Heskey; Relegation for Pompey?

England international Emile Heskey was a sought-after man, and you could see why on Tuesday night.

The ex-Liverpool striker capped off a fine performance on his debut in the claret and blue of Aston Villa, scoring the only goal in the away side's 1-0 win over Portsmouth as well as winning the Man of the Match award. 

In the opening stages of the game, the visitors rarely threatened, with Pompey doing most of the pressing.

It wasn't until the 21st minute that Villa really got into things down on the south coast.

A massive clearance by Brad Friedel was headed on by Gabriel Agbonlahor, who found Heskey with enough space to drill a decent first time shot past Calamity James and into the back of the net.

In the second half, Portsmouth, who at the moment seemed to have about the same luck F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen had last season, would've had an equalizer had it not been for striker Peter Crouch missing an absolute sitter from two yards.

And things were about to get worse for Pompey, as they were dealt a killer blow on 71 minutes. Just when it seemed they could've pressed for an equaliser, defender Nadir Belhadj received a second yellow card after reacting angrily to a handball decision, reducing the hosts to ten men.

Portsmouth then seemed to have the advantage, as even after the sending off they continued to press the Villa defense in desperate pursuit of that equalising goal.

It was not to be, however, and Aston Villa held on for a hard-fought away victory, meaning they now move up to third in the Premier League table.

For Pompey, on the other hand, the idea of relegation will be a real spectre in the back of their minds, especially considering their next few games are against Liverpool and league leaders Manchester United.