Bolton hit the mark after 49 seconds in win over Portsmouth

Tony Adams savaged his players after this nightmare performance. Little wonder.

For if Portsmouth continue to be taken apart in the way they were by Bolton then the Fratton Park manager will soon be in great danger of becoming yet another statistic on the managerial casualty list.

The scoreline doesn't reflect how bad Pompey were.

At least Adams had the guts to be honest about it, saying: "Our start was horrendous and that performance was absolutely awful.

"It was not acceptable. We were not up for the fight - we just didn't turn up."

The scoreline also does not portray how exhilarating Bolton, who could have scored at least five or maybe even eight, were.

Gary Megson's rampant side were two ahead inside three minutes through Matt Taylor and Ricardo Gardner.

Peter Crouch did put Pompey back in touch - technically at least - with a fine 20th-minute header to claim his 12th goal of the season.

Yet the reality was that Adams' men, while they also looked attractive when they got the chance to go forward, were like sitting ducks when Bolton had the ball.

David James pushed a Gretar Steinsson header against a post, Hermann Hreidarsson and then Nico Kranjcar had decent chances, and Gardner missed two easy chances.

Johan Elmander then missed another two shots and James also saved brilliantly at the Swede's feet, before getting away with a mis-kick against the same man, while Kevin Nolan could also have scored from close range.

Megson said : "We had loads and loads of chances. We dominated the game and I am surprised by how close the scoreline was.

"We had been doing really well in training and sometimes you worry you can't take that into the game - but we did from the start. Our performance was excellent."

Adams, having failed in management once at Wycombe, has now notched only two wins in the first nine games of his stint as a Premier League boss, December proving a nightmare month for him so far.

Much more of this and he could be close to finding himself in the same nightmare spiral that saw another young Englishman new to the top tier of management, Paul Ince, thrown to the wolves after just 15 games in charge.

Adams added: "Am I worried? No. I'll keep battling and we'll end up where we end up."

Yet Portsmouth would have salvaged a point had Jermain Defoe not reacted slowly to Richard Hughes' 42nd-minute knockdown .

That would have been the most bizarre of twists on a game that Megson knew should have been a cakewalk right from the start.

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