Loan watch: Traore impresses as Portsmouth beat Stoke- in depth report.

Welcome to today’s loan round-up. Read on for reports on Armand Traore and Havard Nordtveit plus a look back at yesterday’s matches involving Nacer Barazite and Kerrea Gilbert.

Armand Traore- Portsmouth 2 Stoke City 1

Armand put in his most impressive performance in a Portsmouth shirt to date, as Harry Redknapp’s side saw off Stoke City with a 2-1 win at Fratton Park. Despite playing the whole 120 minutes of the UEFA Cup clash with Guimares on Thursday night, the Frenchman was deemed fit enough to start once more on the left-wing.

Traore started off as one of the brightest players on the pitch and hit a left footed shot narrowly wide from 20 yards out. Stoke responded with Ricardo Fuller testing David James with an effort, but then Pompey took the lead after Peter Crouch latched onto Defoe’s cross and produced a stunning overhead kick to make it 1-0.

They could have been two-up before the interval after another great run from Traore who beat two players and whipped the ball in towards Defoe, but the England international couldn’t make contact with the ball under pressure from Faye.

Traore started the second half in the same manner in which he had finished the first, making bombarding runs down the left flank.

Pompey seemed dominant so it came as a suprise when Stoke levelled just three minutes into the second-half after Kitson nodded the ball on for Fuller to score after Delap’s trademark long throw.

Portsmouth were soon back in front, though, Defoe with a superb strike from distance for his sixth goal in ten games.

Traore revelled in Pompey’s dominance. First, he produced a decent ball in which Crouch couldn’t make the most of and then he went for goal himself but saw his effort tipped wide by the Stoke ‘keeper.

Traore was recieving some physical attention from the opposition and one challenge from Simonsen resulted in a yellow card for the Stoke man.

With three minutes remaining, Traore was withdrawn and recieved a standing ovation from the home fans. Pompey held on to win and Armand is coming on leaps and bounds down on the South Coast.

Havard Nordtveit, Pedro Botelho- Gimnastic Tarragona 0 U.D. Salamanca 1

Despite incorrect claims that he was away with the Norweigan national side, Havard Nordtveit returned to the Salamanca starting line-up in central-midfield for the trip to Gimnastic today.

—————–Alberto—————–

Gañan—-Pelegrin—–Catala—-Sito

——-Jorge Alonso—–Nordtveit——-

Isa———–Dañobeitia———Salva

——————Miku——————-

A tight first-half saw the two sides go into the break all square, but ‘Nastic took the lead just after half-time through Redondo.

Havard was withdrawn during the second half as Salamanca looked to claw back an equiliser but they couldn’t, and the defeat means that they relinquish their position at the top of the table.

Arsenal’s other Salamanca loanee, Pedro Botelho, didn’t feature.

Vincent van den Berg- FC Zwolle 1 Go Ahead Eagles 0

Injury deprived Vincent of the chance to take on his former club in the Dutch Ereste division. Zwolle won the game 1-0 thanks to a van der Haar penalty nine minutes from time.

SATURDAY ROUND-UP:

Nacer Barazite played 62 minutes as Derby snatched a late victory over Norwich in the Championship yesterday. The Dutchman impressed on the right-wing as the Rams won 2-1, with Nathan Ellington scoring the decisive goal.

Kerrea Gilbert played the whole game at right-back as Leicester beat Huddersfield 3-2 in League One. The Hammersmith-born defender was booked on 27 minutes for a mis-timed tackle.