Plenty of positives in our final pre-season friendly against a Sporting Lisbon side that toppled Manchester United last week.

In a technically impressive encounter, we created the better chances and the tempo of our display in the first half was far removed from last week's disappointments against PSV. Good news with the Premiership six days away.

Individually, South African skipper Mbulelo Mabizela completed an impressive 70 minutes on his Lane debut, Rohan Ricketts was lively again in midfield and Anthony Gardner looked at his cool, calm and collected best.

It certainly looked like we'd moved on from last week's performance against PSV in a bright first half.

Steve Carr's early break and cross from the right set the tone and the moment of the half followed a minute later as Robbie Keane skipped away from two defenders, whipped in a cross met by Mauricio Taricco at full pace only for Ricardo to fling himself to his left to save.

Jamie Redknapp and Goran Bunjevcevic had efforts before Carr stole in behind Rui Jorge but couldn't keep Taricco's teasing cross on target.

Carr and Keane's combination down the right was a highlight and they created an opening for Simon Davies to fire high and wide after 22 minutes.

Sporting, always tidy, didn't seriously threaten although Gardner needed to be at his best to flick a dangerous cross away from Pinto and Clayton's 20-yarder forced Kasey Keller into action after 39 minutes.

The second half started relatively slowly in comparison to the first until the arrival of Gus Poyet and Bobby Zamora on the hour lifted things.

Keane soon dragged a shot wide from the edge of the box before combining again with Carr - this time Carr's cross, heading for Zamora, was taken away from the forward by Severo.

Mabizela's afternoon's work ended after 71 minutes and his replacement Gary Doherty, his first senior appearance of pre-season, had to be at his defensive best to deny Silva and Lourenco as the visitors pushed on further.

Indeed, the Portuguese went closest to breaking the deadlock with the final kick of the game as the outstanding Beto Severo clipped a free-kick over the wall that hit the underside of the bar and bounced to safety - defeat would have been harsh.