PIQUIONNE HAS HART PUMPING

PAUL HART reckons his Portsmouth strugglers, and Frederic Piquionne in particular, can push on from their 4-0 slaughter of Stoke in the Carling Cup.

Piquionne, who has toiled at Premier League level since arriving on loan from Lyon, scored twice with Danny Webber and Kanu also on the scoresheet against the under-strength Potters.

With Pompey facing a battle to get out of the relegation zone, the French hitman could emerge as a key player if he builds his confidence.

"The penny is starting to drop with Frederic," said Hart. "We have a lot of players who haven't played in the Premier League and it's a massive change for them.

"There's an English attitude to the game that Frederic has to acquire.

"He was recommended to us. When we signed him we were absolutely brassic and free sounds good.

"His goalscoring record in France wasn't the best but we hope he'll make goals for people as well."

Piquionne was a threat from the start and he beat Danny Higginbotham to head in Nadir Belhadj's cross and continued to look the liveliest player on the pitch.

With Stoke barely offering any attacking danger of their own, Pompey went further ahead when Piquionne set up Danny Webber to hammer in number two 11 minutes after the interval.

Three minutes later, Steve Simonsen made a hash of a Michael Brown free-kick and Piquionne was on hand to convert the simplest of tap-ins.

Substitute Kanu grabbed the fourth on 81 minutes when latching onto Aaron Mokoena's pass and rounding Simonsen to get in on the act.

Stoke chief Tony Pulis was annoyed with his team's performance, despite making 10 changes to the one that won at Tottenham on Saturday.

"The four we conceded were very poor goals to give away and were typified by Glenn Whelan falling over the ball for their fourth," said Pulis.

"When we got in Pompey's final third there were at least five occasions where our final ball was absolutely shocking.

"If we'd picked people out we'd have had great opportunities ourselves.

"Between both boxes we did okay, but games are won or lost in the final third. We weren't good enough at both ends.

"I was expecting us to have a go at Portsmouth and I'm disappointed we didn't."

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