FA Premiership / Portsmouth 4; Fulham 3: Portsmouth held on for their first Premiership win of the season after an Aiyegbeni Yakubu hat-trick helped them outscore Fulham in a seven-goal thriller at Fratton Park last night.

Eyal Berkovic and Yakubu had the hosts two up in two minutes midway through the first half and Yakubu added a third from the spot before Andy Cole and Luis Boa Morte led a Fulham fightback before the break.

But Yakubu struck again after 71 minutes before Carlos Bocanegra's header had the last word for the Cottagers in a thriller.

Hislop again kept Pompey's noses in front, flying to tip over Cole's header after Bocanegra headed Zat Knight's long free-kick across the face of goal in the 70th minute.

And this attacking feast continued when Yakubu completed his hat-trick, sweeping home Berkovic's pass to make it 4-2 for Portsmouth two minutes later.

But within two minutes Fulham had closed the gap again, Bocanegra' s diving header from a Boa Morte free-kick appearing to squeeze between Hislop's legs.

Lomana LuaLua, on as substitute, was allowed to run clear from an offside position but Yakubu drove his cross straight at Edwin van der Sar with nine minutes left. "When we scored they scored too and we were a little bit scared," admitted Yakubu afterwards.

Hislop claimed the win was more important to his team than anything else. "I would like to have kept a clean sheet but the most important thing was to get three points," he said. Hislop had been at fault in the defeat to Charlton. "I wanted to do well after making the mistake last week. The save from Andy Cole was the best, that would have dragged them back in the game if that one had gone in."

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp admitted he had gone with an attacking formation and knew his team would be vulnerable. "I felt we were going to be open but I felt we could do damage to them," he said.

PORTSMOUTH: Hislop, Primus, De Zeeuw, Stefanovic, Unsworth, Stone, Quashie, Berger, Berkovic (LuaLua 79), Fuller, Yakubu (Taylor 88). Subs Not Used: Ashdown, Griffin, O'Neil. Goals: Berkovic 19, Yakubu 22 pen, 28, 72.

FULHAM: Van der Sar, Volz, Goma, Knight, Bocanegra, Jensen, Diop, Legwinski (McBride 86), Boa Morte, Cole, Radzinski (John 68). Subs Not Used: Crossley, Pembridge, McKinlay. Booked: Legwinski, Knight. Goals: Cole 39, Boa Morte 41, Bocanegra 75.

Referee: B Knight (Kent).