Carter's calamity sinks Preston as James turns on the style for Pompey

For every hero, a fall guy — and so, barely 24 hours after Brian Howard dumped out Liverpool with a late winner, Darren Carter was holding his head in his hands, the unwitting victim of a 93rd-minute own goal at Deepdale.

It gave Portsmouth an undeserved place in the quarter-final draw as one of four Premier League survivors.

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Preston's pain will be all the greater because they know that place should have been theirs long before Pompey defender Hermann Hreidarsson appeared to handle the ball towards goal in the dying seconds and Carter hammered it into his own net as he tried to clear.

But the man for Preston to blame was David James, not Carter nor Simon Whaley, who saw the giant Portsmouth goalkeeper block his penalty attempt on the hour.

For the second successive game since he was reinstalled as England's No 1 goalkeeper, James produced a towering performance.

As well as lunging to keep out Whaley's spot-kick, he also produced crucial saves from Neil Mellor, Chris Brown and Carter as Preston swarmed all over Harry Redknapp's side in the second half.

The Portsmouth manager, who also had his goalkeeper to thank for victory at Bolton the previous week, said: "Ever since he walked into Portsmouth he has been fantastic for us.

"The lad stepping up to take the penalty must have been thinking he had to take a really good one, because David is so imposing and difficult to beat. He's different class."

Redknapp, who has never progressed beyond the quarter-finals in the FA Cup as a manager, insisted he had not seen a replay of the goal so was unable to comment on Hreidarsson's alleged hand-ball, but admitted his side were fortunate.

"I was just thinking about how long there was to go so we could get them back to Fratton Park," he added.

"Anyone who thinks they can come to Preston for the day and have an easy ride doesn't understand football. It's the FA Cup. I've been on the right and wrong end of these games. It's amazing what happens."

Pompey had enough warning signs in the first half to be concerned.

For all their neat passing football they made few inroads and it was the Championship strugglers who made their opponents look decidedly edgy at the back.

It was best summed up by Whaley's duel with Glen Johnson down the Preston left flank, while Karl Hawley's movement also caused the visitors problems and Brown relished his physical battle up front with Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin.

Whaley fired wide from a difficult angle after Johnson only half-blocked his first effort, but Niko Kranjcar went close from a similar position.

The Croatia midfielder also headed straight at Preston goalkeeper Andy Lonergan when Sulley Muntari's ball found him onside and unmarked, before Muntari forced Lonergan into a fine save with a dipping free-kick from 25 yards.

The second period was anything but even, however, and referee Mike Dean had already turned down two rather optimistic penalty appeals against Papa Bouba Diop before he pointed to the spot when Billy Jones burst on to a pass from Whaley and was upended by Distin.

Whaley's effort was well struck but at a good height for James to spring to his right and beat the ball away with his left hand.

Preston manager Alan Irvine said: "The first thing he (Whaley) did when he came into the dressing room was apologise. It's good that he can say that but I told him there was no need because people miss penalties.

"We're certainly not going to criticise him. The last thing we're going to do is make him feel any worse than he does at the moment."

If anything, the penalty miss only made Preston more determined to try to beat James, who made flying saves to keep out long-range efforts from Brown and substitute Mellor and got down well to smother a low effort from Carter as he skipped through a series of tackles on the edge of the area.

Chris Sedgwick should also have done better than curl his shot wide from a good position before sending a 30-yard drive inches over the bar.

Having barely threatened the Preston goal, there was an air of inevitability when Kranjcar stepped up to take a corner in the last minute of stoppage time.

Lonergan failed to get a hand to the cross, Hreidarsson certainly did and Carter was the unfortunate defender close to his own line.

Irvine said: "It was very cruel. I haven't seen it on television but I'm led to believe it was a hand-ball. We didn't deserve to lose that game. We just faced a top-class goalkeeper who was in top form."