Another EPL record ...
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PremierLeague.com
29 September 2007 - Portsmouth 7-4 Reading
Benjani hit a hat-trick as Portsmouth beat Reading 7-4 in the highest-scoring match in Barclays Premier League history.
Pompey led 2-1 at half-time but the floodgates opened after the break and the score would have been higher had Portsmouth goalkeeper David James not saved a Nicky Shorey penalty.
The goalscoring started on seven minutes, when Benjani passed to John Utaka on the left and then met his cross to find the net from close range.
The Zimbabwe international doubled Pompey’s lead in the 37th minute when he ran at the Reading defence before finding the net with a powerful low drive from 20 yards.
Royals goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann then denied Glen Johnson before the visitors pulled one back on the stroke of half-time when Stephen Hunt headed home from close range.
Reading drew level three minutes after the break when Pompey goalkeeper David James raced out to the right wing to try to dispossess Dave Kitson, who evaded his tackle and scored his third goal of the season from a tight angle close to the byline.
Pompey regained the lead in the 55th minute when Hermann Hreidarsson beat Hahnemann to Sylvain Distin’s deep cross and headed in his first goal for the club.
Shorey squandered the chance of another equaliser in the 65th minute when his penalty was saved by James after handball by Papa Bouba Diop.
Benjani completed his first hat-trick in English football in the 70th minute, racing on to Sulley Muntari’s pass, bypassing the onrushing Hahnemann and tucking the ball home from eight yards.
It became 5-2 in the 75th minute when Niko Kranjcar headed in Sean Davis’s cross from close range but again Reading would not give up and James Harper’s volley deflected in off Shane Long four minutes later to hand them renewed hope.
Davis finally killed them off in the 81st minute when his 30-yard shot deflected in off Royals defender Ivar Ingimarsson.
Muntari got on the scoresheet in injury-time to put Pompey 7-3 up from the penalty spot but there was still time for Shorey’s deflected effort to find the Pompey net.
Portsmouth coach Joe Jordan said: “Even at 2-2 I don’t think anyone expected the score to be exaggerated to 7-4 but overall I think the best team won.”
“It’s difficult to analyse a match like that and if you try, you will be there a very long time,” Reading manager Steve Coppell added.
The two sides went on to have very contrasting seasons with Reading being relegated on goal difference on the final day of the season, with Fulham surviving, and Pompey finishing eighth and winning the FA Cup.