United take spot-kick victory

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There was none of the same drama though as United sauntered through three successful spot-kicks with only Jermain Defoe successful in reply.

It was 26 minutes before either side forced a save, James beating away Ryan Giggs' near-post piledriver.

After spurning an earlier golden opportunity, Fletcher came agonisingly close to giving United the lead they deserved with a superb chip that was heading in until James touched it onto the bar.

The rebound came at Carlos Tevez pretty quickly, leaving him no time to do anything other than nod it straight to the Portsmouth keeper.

Gary Neville signalled his well-being on his first domestic appearance since March 2007, thundering into John Utaka to earn a booking after enjoying a relatively quiet hour.

The chances started to mount for United as James denied both Giggs and Nani before producing a full-length fingertip save to touch round a Tevez effort that was heading for the corner.

Both sides had good penalty appeals turned down, Hermann Hreidarsson pulling Tevez down with a firm grip of the ankle, before prospective England skipper Rio Ferdinand smashed a shot into the side-netting.

It was the prelude to a niggly last few minutes as Fraizer Campbell was buffeted around and Paul Scholes caught Papa Bouba Diop.

But in the end, it went down to penalties. And one suspects, after their nailbiting win over Chelsea, this time there was no pressure for United at all.