Kane fires us into FA Cup fourth round - on-the-whistle report

Harry Kane struck the only goal of the game to see us progress in our FA Cup third round tie with Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon.

Captain on the day, Kane scored his 265th Spurs goal to move within one of Jimmy Greaves’ all-time record, rifling home five minutes into the second half at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Pompey, who arrived 12th in League One and without a win since October, were backed by an impressive away support in the North Stand, although they didn’t have too much to cheer as we dominated throughout the game despite the narrow margin of victory.

The pattern was set early on as we dictated possession but found it tricky to break down Pompey’s massed ranks, as they put all 11 players behind the ball every time we attacked, particularly in the first half. In fact, there was just one shot on target in that first period and it went to the visitors, Reeco Hackett’s acrobatic effort pushed away by Fraser Forster. At the other end, just before half-time, Pape Matar Sarr and Heung-Min Son both fired wide with efforts from distance as we looked for a way through.

It almost came four minutes after the break, only for Emerson Royal’s looping header at the back post to hit the far upright and bounce back into the arms of goalkeeper Joshua Griffiths. But a minute later we were ahead, Kane playing a one-two with Ryan Sessegnon before hitting a sumptuous 20-yard right-foot curler into the back of the net.

It should have been 2-0 on 68 minutes, but Oliver Skipp blasted over from 12 yards out. The visitors were pegged back in their own half as we had almost complete control of the game, apart from a flurry of late attacks from Pompey, but they came to nothing and we moved on to round four, the draw for which is tomorrow afternoon around 4pm.

'When we found the goal, the space was bigger'

Assistant Head Coach Cristian Stellini said afterwards: "We’ve progressed to the next round and that’s all we wanted. We are happy because played a good game, we didn’t risk anything, so it’s an important game for us. Portsmouth created a tough game because they were compact, they were tough in the box and we didn’t have many chances to score in the first half. We had some shots from outside the box, but they were good. We know this because when you play this type of game, you have to be good with the ball, most of the game was in our hands and when we found the goal, the space was bigger."

Reaction on SPURSPLAY

Match data

Goal: Spurs – Kane 50.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Davies; Portsmouth - Thompson.

Referee: Thomas Bramall.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Weather: Light rain showers, moderate breeze, 11 degrees.

Attendance: 60,161.