Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp hailed David James as a "perfectionist" after his goalkeeping heroics helped Pompey beat Preston in the FA Cup.Pompey clinched a quarter-final spot at the expense of Championship strugglers Preston with a 1-0 victory at Deepdale on Sunday.

North End lie fourth bottom in the Championship but they belied their lowly status with a vibrant display and the award of a 60th-minute spot-kick put them on course for a notable upset.

But James, 37, flung his 6ft 5in frame to his right to deny Preston winger Simon Whaley from 12 yards and then produced two fine saves from Chris Brown and substitute Neil Mellor.

And North End midfielder Darren Carter compounded the misery among home supporters when he bundled the ball into his own net in the 93rd minute following a corner from Croatia midfielder Niko Kranjcar.

Redknapp - whose side are in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2004 - said: "David James is different class and the lad taking the penalty must have stepped up and realised how imposing he is.

"If anyone can make a save, it's going to be him because he's that good.

"In the last couple of weeks he's been in great form but he's been like that since he came to the club.

"He's been on another level - absolutely fantastic - and hopefully he can continue in that vein."

Yet again, James excelled throughout to further enhance his claims to remain as England's number one goalkeeper for the foreseeable future.

The 37-year-old has been restored in a Three Lions shirt since the arrival of Fabio Capello and has subsequently fixed his sights on being England's first-choice goalkeeper at the next World Cup.

James will be pushing 40 when the finals in South Africa come around in 2010, but he has rarely enjoyed better form than at present.

"He's such a perfectionist and will be around for a long time yet," added Redknapp.

"He's a great trainer and it's not a problem for him.

"He works non-stop on the training ground and he studies videos of his performances every afternoon.

"He's absolutely dedicated and he's in such great condition."

The nature of the goal was a sickener for Preston as former West Brom man Carter inadvertently rifled the ball into the roof of the net from point-blank range after Herman Hreidarsson connected with Kranjcar's corner.

Redknapp was forced to admits his side were fortuitous to escape with victory.

"I was thinking 'let's get them back to Fratton Park'," said Redknapp.

"But you need a bit of luck and we had that at Bolton a couple of weeks ago and we had it today.

"It was a difficult game as Preston made life difficult. The pitch wasn't great but what Preston had was a willingness and a pace up front, and I thought they were excellent."

Preston boss Alan Irvine could hardly have asked any more of his players and they were desperately unlucky not to earn at least a replay.

The former Everton assistant manager refused to point the finger at Whaley for missing the penalty - awarded after Sylvain Distin fouled Preston defender Billy Jones.

Irvine said: "The first thing he did when he came into the dressing room was apologise.

"But I said he had need to apologise because people miss penalties.

"It's good that he feels that way but we're certainly not going to start pointing the finger.

"We've got some very important games coming up and we're not going to make him feel any worse than he already feels at the moment."

Attention at Deepdale now switches back to avoiding relegation to League One.

Irvine said: "To play as well as we did has got to give the players a lot of confidence.

"If we can take that second-

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