THE INDEPENDENT - HEART OF STONE
Stay up, Pompey; Pompey, stay up. The chances of Portsmouth's braves doing so improved immeasurably with this heroic victory, which sends them five points clear of relegation with a game in hand on Leeds United, for whom it is now essential to retrieve three of them when the teams meet at Elland Road next Sunday lunchtime.
For Manchester United, the fixture that jumps out is on 8 May at home to Chelsea, who are pulling ahead of them in the chase for the runners-up position and second Champions' League place. Missing Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy again, they had abundant possession but did little with it, and suffered a first defeat at throbbing Fratton Park since 1955.
Not that they have been regular visitors: the atmospheric old ground, with one end open to the elements and the whiff from the toilets wafting up through the wooden main stand, has seen top-flight football for only two seasons in the past 45 years. Portsmouth have no intention of forfeiting their status this time, and suddenly the figures are beginning to add up. No side outside the top six have won more home matches, and it is now four wins and a draw from five games, prompting an ebullient Harry Redknapp to tell his players afterwards: "If you'd started playing like this a month ago, we could have been in Europe."
So United failed to score for the first time in 17 games dating back to the 1-0 defeat at Wolves in January that marked the end of Rio Ferdinand's season and - coincidentally or not - the beginning of their decline.
There was greater cohesion earlier on, when Louis Saha headed over the bar after beating Shaka Hislop to Nicky Butt's cross, the goalkeeper then redeeming himself with a low, one-handed save from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Closer to half-time, he would save another Saha header and a drive by John O'Shea, one full-back meeting a cross by the other (Gary Neville) and showing why Redknapp needed an extra wide-man on the pitch to stop the pair marauding forward.
By that time, however, Portsmouth had a precious goal in the locker, the two United backs having proved less effective at their day job of defending. Lomana LuaLua, infuriatingly unpredictable, had one of his better moments in sprinting past O'Shea for a low cross that first Wes Brown and then Neville, under pressure from blue-shirted harriers, failed to clear.
In the absence of Ruud van Nistelrooy, who should return for the home game against Charlton on Tuesday, United initially used only Saha down the middle, with Solskjaer and Ryan Giggs both out wide. Ferguson gradually changed the emphasis during the second half, bringing on more and more attacking players - Cristiano Ronaldo, then Darren Fletcher and eventually David Bellion - without causing serious disturbance to the home defence or the raucous crowd.
Not until the four minutes of added time was there real threat of an equaliser. In the same attack, bodies thrown in the way of shots by Saha and Bellion did their job before Matthew Taylor unwisely put both hands up to a hooked shot by Neville, bringing unanswered roars for a penalty. Ferguson, who might have been expected to explode, instead chose to praise the integrity of the referee, Neale Barry. Strange days indeed.
THE SUNDAY TIMES - UNITED CAUGHT STONE COLD
The Busby Babes were three years from Munich the last time Portsmouth sent Manchester United home empty-handed from Fratton Park. Yesterday, roared on by surely the loudest fans in the Premiership, Pompey ended that dismal run with a famous victory that goes some way to guaranteeing a visit from United next season.
Ultimately, it was a victory of graft over craft, for the traditional values of dogged combativeness and ceaseless endeavour, plus a little luck.
Louis Saha, so mobile for a big man, was soon exploiting his pace and guile to prise open Portsmouth’s central defensive partnership of Arjan De Zeeuw and Dejan Stefanovic, who were left floundering by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tendency to drift wide. Saha might have put United ahead in the 13th minute when he headed a lofted through ball by Paul Scholes over Shaka Hislop’s bar after the centre-halves were again unsure who was to pick him up.
The Serb and the Dutchman learned their lesson well, however, and subsequently acted with one mind to repulse everything United threw at them.
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - UNITED DEFEAT HURTS KEEGAN
Only in the dying minutes, when he came out to supervise another pointless substitution, did Sir Alex Ferguson emerge from his dugout, looking like a man without a care in the world. And that told you everything about the way Manchester United approached this game.
United simply do not enter end-of-season squabbles for runners-up spot. This time of the year, when Flat racing's equine finest are tuning up for the summer, we normally expect to see United in full, elegant, thoroughbred stride as they approach the Premiership winning post, while juggling an attempt to triumph in the European stakes.
Taking second spot ahead of Chelsea has relevance in that it would spare United from performing an audition before they can take their place in next season's Champions League. But that was clearly not enough incentive for their players on a difficult day out on the south coast.
THE OBSERVER - STONE GRINDS OUT VITAL WIN FOR POMPEY
For United, defeat undermines their bid to edge out Chelsea for the runners-up spot and automatic entry into the group stage of the Champions League. They have only themselves to blame.
Even with the continued absences of Roy Keane and Ruud van Nistelrooy, they had enough possession and created sufficient chances to have been out in front before Stone's goal. But although Sir Alex Ferguson defended his side's work rate, there were too many areas where victory seemed to have been taken for granted. Against a side fighting for their lives and who have a solid record at Fratton Park, it was a dangerous assumption.