Portsmouth 1 Sheffield United 0: Unlucky 13 for Adams as defeat leaves bleak outlook for Blades

The Blades have not won since Sheffield-born Adams arrived at Bramall Lane to take over from Gary Speed and despite an improved display at Fratton Park, Hermann Hreidarsson’s first-half goal was enough to take all three points.

It leaves the Blades six points adrift of safety, and with three of their next four opponents sitting in the top six, it could get even worse for Adams and his side.

Tomorrow night United host fifth-placed Nottingham Forest at Bramall Lane, before welcoming Yorkshire rivals Leeds United (sixth) on March 19. Sandwiched in between those games is a trip to Watford – sat a ‘lowly’ 12th in the Championship – before a visit to former manager Neil Warnock’s leaders QPR on April 4.

Following the match at Loftus Road, United will have just seven Championship games left to achieve safety, meaning they must pick up points against the promotion-hunting quartet.

Adams had words of consolation for his Blades players after pushing Pompey close, and feels his side deserved a draw on Saturday.

“Once again we have lost to a sloppy goal, poor individual marking at yet another set-piece,” he said. “But after that, and throughout the second half, we were the better team and pushed Portsmouth back for long periods.

“A draw was the very least we deserved and it is hard to say anything else, other than the ball just isn’t dropping for us. We seemed to get decent balls in from both flanks but whether or not we get enough bodies in or are making the right runs, we’ll have to look at.

“I told the boys afterwards about the thin line between success and failure because Pompey have now won six in a row without conceding a goal and no one can tell me that they were the better team out there today.

“We had tremendous support, which we are thankful for and they will have seen, from the effort put in, that the lads and myself have certainly not given up. We have Forest at Bramall Lane on Tuesday, another big game for us, and we will go away and prepare to do our best again.”

Hreidarsson struck his first goal in over a year as Portsmouth served warning of a late play-off challenge.

Iceland international Hreidarsson slammed the ball home from close range following ex-Blade David Cotterill’s corner midway through the first half and helped marshal a Pompey defence that then went on to keep a sixth successive clean sheet.

The Blades, unchanged from the side that lost at Bramall Lane to Derby last week, were first to threaten when striker Ched Evans rifled a 25-yard shot over the crossbar in the 10th minute.

But with Pompey winger Cotterill looking to impress against his former club, the home side moved quickly through the gears and began to dominate much of the possession. Leading goalscorer David Nugent forced United goalkeeper Steve Simonsen into a fine save with a low shot from inside the penalty area, and Pompey defender Greg Halford, another former Blade, drilled a 35-yard free-kick over the crossbar before Portsmouth eventually opened the scoring through the Icelandic defender. Cotterill swung over a corner in the 24th minute and after Nugent and Johnny Ertl’s aerial challenge, the ball broke for Hreidarsson on the edge of the six-yard box and he lashed it high into the roof of the net for his first goal since December 2009.

Portsmouth continued to look the more accomplished outfit, but save for Hreidarsson’s thumping header that flew just wide in the 43rd minute, neither side created another clearcut chance before half-time.

Pompey striker Dave Kitson brought the best out of Simonsen again four minutes into the second period, driving in an angled shot from 12 yards that the visiting goalkeeper pushed away, and Nugent dragged a similar effort wide soon after.

Blades midfielder Stephen Quinn struck a shot from the edge of the penalty area wide in the 64th minute, but although the visitors enjoyed a more equal share of possession as the second half progressed, there was little precision in the final third and they wasted their opportunities.

Pompey midfielder Hayden Mullins threatened to add a second when he rifled a 20-yard shot over the crossbar, before the Blades manufactured a rare foray into the hosts’ box, substitute Sam Vokes heading straight at home goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown.

Vokes went close again in the closing stages with another header, this time from Bjorn Helge Riise’s curling cross, as the visitors mounted a desperate late rally to salvage a point, but Adams’s side slipped to a third successive defeat and are now just six points adrift of safety.

Portsmouth: Ashdown, De Laet, Halford, Rocha, Hreidarsson, Ward (Kanu 70), Mullins, Hogg (Mokoena 70), Cotterill (Dickinson 80), Kitson, Nugent. Unused substitutes: Flahavan, Ciftci, Kilbey.

Sheffield United: Simonsen, Nosworthy (Bent 77), Ertl, Collins, Lowton, Riise, Williamson, Doyle (Vokes 71), Quinn, Cresswell (Bogdanovic 77), Evans. Unused substitutes: Long, Montgomery, Mattock, Kozluk.

Referee: Russell Booth (Nottinghamshire).