Passionless Pompey bow to Horsfield

Whether finishing fourth from bottom merits jubilation three months on is open to question, but the mood at least provided some consolation to Portsmouth fans on an otherwise bleak afternoon, not so much because their golden age came in the years around the Second World War, but because Albion's survival proves that there is always hope no matter how bad your start to the season.

Portsmouth's opening has been dreadful. Two games have brought two defeats, and while Laurent Robert offered hope in the final quarter, this was a match that, but for Albion's curious diffidence after taking an early lead, they could have lost decisively. They were hapless, shapeless and largely passionless.

Seven of their starting XI were not at the club last season, and it showed. "We were not aggressive enough and there was a lack of concentration," said Portsmouth's manager, Alain Perrin. "The players need time to play together, but this was better. Last Saturday we stopped playing, but today we fought."

Perhaps in comparison to the pitiful display against Tottenham they did, but it was hardly battling in any absolute sense. It was with a 2-0 win over Portsmouth on the final day that Albion stayed up, an occasion on which Pompey fans were willing enough patsies, wearing navy-and-white striped shirts and chanting "Let them score".

Portsmouth's team were almost as acquiescent yesterday. Horsfield broke the deadlock in that climax to last season as soon as he came off the bench; yesterday he started, and again scored after two minutes, meeting Jonathan Greening's left-wing cross with a firm downward header.

With Nathan Ellington sitting on the bench after his midweek move from Wigan, Horsfield's position is under threat, but his muscularity and determination made him a persistent nuisance yesterday. "Geoff was terrific," his manager, Bryan Robson, said. "People keep talking about strikers leaving, but I've said from the summer that Geoff played very well towards the end of last season. He's an important member of the squad."

Horsfield could have had a second after 22 minutes as he lashed Zoltan Gera's low cross over, but he did make it 2-0 on the hour after a nimble turn inside Gregory Vignal. His shot seemed to be heading straight at Sander Westerveld, but skidded under his right hand, and had probably crossed the line by the time Andy Griffin hooked it clear. Westerveld, anyway, remained crouched in mortification and allowed Kevin Campbell to jab the loose ball into the net.

"It was a bad goal because we lost possession in the middle of the field," said Perrin, but he may as well have been talking of the game as a whole. Far too often, possession was squandered, and it was mystifying that West Brom did not take greater advantage. They even had to endure a nervy final few minutes after Robert, as he is prone to, whipped a free-kick into the top corner.

Those nerves, ultimately, amounted to nothing more than another Robert free-kick that smacked into the wall, and then a dreadful miss from the Greek substitute Giannis Skopelitis, who, given at least half the goal to aim at in the third minute of injury time, blasted his shot several feet over. A draw, though, would have been a travesty.

As Portsmouth contemplate a season of struggle, West Brom have begun the campaign with the resolution with which they finished last. "The players have begun to believe in themselves," Robson said. Portsmouth, by contrast, have barely introduced themselves.