Portsmouth 0 Bristol City 0: Bradley Orr was no doubt still kicking himself as he boarded the team bus to make the journey from Fratton Park back to Bristol.

For City's popular right-back was still reliving the moment he came within a hair's breadth of dumping FA Cup holders Portsmouth out of the competition.

Pompey had thrown everything at their Championship opponents without success when, with 20 minutes of this third- round tie remaining, Orr was presented with an opportunity to etch his name into Cup folklore.

Substitute Dele Adebola skipped around Martin Cranie, delivered a deep cross towards the far post and 3,000 City fans packed behind the goal held their breath as the unmarked Orr took off in pursuit of glory.

His header was both firm and on target, but still not good enough to beat England number one David James, who somehow turned the ball over the bar with his fingertips to save his manager's blushes and avert the notion, at least for now, that the south coast club is suffering a full-blown crisis.

Up for sale, £95m in debt and dropping down the Premier League table like a stone following four successive defeats, Pompey need a replay at Ashton Gate like a proverbial hole in the head.

Had Orr inflicted an unthinkable defeat upon the Premier League millionaires, the pressure on manager Tony Adams might just have become intolerable. This result will not cost him his job, but it will not stand him in good stead if he hopes to still have it by the end of the season.

"I knew I had a chance, but I just couldn't get it down," admitted Orr. "The cross was a little high and, had I been able to get over it, it would have been a pretty good header.

"I see it as a bit of a miss and the lads are telling me it was a hard chance. But it hasn't happened and it's one of those things. I'll just have to try and put it behind me and look forward to the replay."

That is a point of view unlikely to be shared by Portsmouth's chastened international stars, for whom a trip to Ashton Gate tomorrow week will be about as welcome as toothache.

"It's 11 against 11 and anything can happen in the FA Cup," reflected Orr. "We've given ourselves a chance. If we play well in the replay, we'll definitely have a chance to be in the next round.

"Portsmouth will be favourites because they're in a higher league, but it doesn't matter what the bookmakers think. We have belief in ourselves and, hopefully, we can pull off one of those shocks that always seem to happen in the FA Cup."

He added: "They have players who can punish you if you give them a yard or two of space and we had to stay switched on the whole time. But we were pleased with the number of chances we restricted them to.

"There are top international players in their side and we can take a lot of positives from our performance. On another day, that header would have gone in and we would have gone through."

Portsmouth may be FA Cup holders, but there was little resemblance to a silverware-winning team in the way they laboured to break down underdogs who refused to yield.

Adams has won just three of his 15 matches in charge and the former Arsenal legend spoke before the game of not conceding goals as the key to success in the Cup. He conveniently said nothing about scoring them and thoughts of the absent Jermain Defoe, nursing a heavy cold from his sick bed, cast a shadow over ramshackle Fratton Park.

Some of his players are about to desert Adams in the January transfer window and, on the evidence of this sterile performance, the Pompey faithful may not be too far behind them. This was the lowest crowd of the season at Fratton Park and the fans made their feelings clear by booing the home side off at the end.

But it would be wrong to attribute the outcome entirely to Portsmouth's shortcomings. City's players deserve enormous credit for the manner in which they went about the business of frustrating opponents who earn the kind of money they can only dream of.

Adams unwittingly played into City manager Gary Johnson's hands by deploying his charges in a like-for-like 4-3-3 formation, enabling the Championship side to engage their more famous rivals man-for-man.

No-one impressed more in winning his individual battle than Robins centre-back Jamie McCombe, who effectively marked England striker Peter Crouch out of the game. Charged with the task of shackling one of the tallest players in European football, the bluff Yorkshireman produced arguably his best performance of the season to blunt an attack crying out for Defoe's pace and trickery.

Similarly, Orr held his own against the talented Niko Kranjcar, skipper Louis Carey led by example at the heart of a back four which stood resolute throughout, while the admirable Marvin Elliott and Cole Skuse proved worthy combatants in the midfield skirmish.

Not surprisingly, City were forced to soak up a good deal of pressure and they rode their luck on a couple of occasions, notably when Adriano Basso turned aside Sol Campbell's header and Sylvain Distin thumped the loose ball goal-wards only for Carey to clear off the line.

City again breathed a collective sigh of relief when Skuse headed David Nugent's fierce volley behind for a corner with Basso beaten.

Pompey beat five Championship clubs in winning the Cup last season but could not find a way past City despite having the best player on the pitch in Kranjcar and creating more chances.

Quite simply, they were found wanting in front of goal, never more so than when Kranjcar, presented with the best opening of the game by Crouch's hanging cross early in the second half, contrived to direct his header wide of a gaping target from six yards.

When plan A failed to produce a breakthrough, Pompey's manager did not seem to possess a plan B. Adams threw Noe Pamarot on for Cranie, but still adhered rigidly to his starting formation.

Although the visitors were limited to a handful of half chances – Ivan Sproule twice shot over and new signing Peter Styvar tested James with a low drive from 20 yards – they will have been encouraged by the ease with which they contained Pompey.

City may well remain underdogs when the tie is replayed, but will quietly fancy their chances of vanquishing Premier League opposition for the first time since Liverpool were beaten in a third-round replay at Anfield in January 1994.