Portsmouth piled the pressure on Fulham boss Lawrie Sanchez with a 2-0 win at Craven Cottage.

Two goals in quick succession early in the second half give Pompey the win over a Fulham side who created several chances but were denied by poor finishing and several good saves by David James.

Fulham slip into the relegation zone after the defeat, overtaken by Tottenham who drew at Liverpool.

Lawrie Sanchez' men only have themselves to blame for the defeat as both goals came about from dreadful defending. Former boss Chris Coleman's main culpability in recent seasons was failing to organise a good defence at the club - Fulham having one of the worst defensive records in the Premier League in the last campaign - and Sanchez as done little to fix the problem, the centre-back pairing of Aaron Hughes and Carlos Bocanegra lacking height and strength and new captain Chris Baird slow and out of his depth.

The first Portsmouth goal was the fault of Bocanegra, who got too tight on Benjani when Niko Kranjcar played him through on the edge of the box. The Zimbabwe striker held the American off and sent a low shot that took a deflection off his marker and past Kasey Keller, who retained his place ahead of Antti Niemi.

And the excellent Kranjcar was involved again almost straight from the restart, flicking a delightful ball through to Herman Hreidarsson on the overlap, his shot taking a big diversion off the out-of-position Baird and over Keller on 52 minutes.

Until that point Fulham looked the better side going forward, makeshift striker Clint Dempsey forcing a great save from James in the second minute after a David Healy knock down.

Keller made a good stop from Sulley Muntari on nine minutes and bravely blocked at John Utaka's feet after he was sent clear by a brilliant James throw-out, but Fulham created more chances and should have gone in front two minutes before the break when Hameur Bouazza flicked the ball over Glen Johnson, sprinted towards the left corner and whipped a glorious ball across to Healy who flew in but saw his powerful low finish blocked by James.

And they had another chance almost immediately afterwards when Healy found space on the left and delivered a perfect low centre for Dempsey who could not make contact sliding in.

But then Fulham fell apart, conceding twice in quick succession after half time, and aside from a great save by James from Bouazza and despite a triple attacking substitution that saw the introduction of Diomansy Kamara, Danny Murphy and Seol Ki-Hyeon there was only really one side in the match, Sean Davis mis-kicking against his former employers went sent clear by Utaka, Kranjcar firing just wide after Johnson and Muntari carved Fulham open again on the break and some shocking defending that allowed Utaka to waltz into the Fulham box but delaying his shot long enough for Paul Konchesky to block.

Benjani fluffed a chance for his second late on when he could only shoot straight at Keller after being given the freedom of Craven Cottage once again, but Portsmouth eased to the win which takes them into the top five and pushes Fulham down into a genuine relegation battle.

Reda Maher / Eurosport