Pompey jump off the bottom of the Championship table with a dominant display against Bristol City in wet and windy conditions at Fratton Park.
John Mousinho had to watch on from the TV gantry as Pompey recorded their third win of the season and second at home. The Portsmouth head coach was suspended from the touchline after picking up his third yellow card of the campaign at Swansea last week.
The Blues sit just one point from safety, with a game in hand above Plymouth in 22nd and Cardiff in 21st after their games were postponed due to Storm Darragh hitting the South-West and Wales.
A second goal of the season for the returning Colby Bishop, followed by Josh Murphy’s finish just after the hour mark and it was Callum Lang who killed off the game after he tapped in Murphy’s cross, pulling out his iconic celebration with his tongue out, waving his hands on his head.
However, Pompey will be without the former Wigan man – Lang and Andre Dozzell when they host Norwich on Tuesday after the pair picked up their fifth yellow cards of the season respectively.
There was a lot of speculation before the game on whether match would go ahead, due to this weekend's storm hitting the country, especially the West where Bristol City fans were travelling down from to Fratton Park.
Thankfully for John Mousinho’s side the game went ahead after two consecutive postponements in the back end of November away at Blackburn and at home to Millwall which was abandoned due to a power cut.
Pompey controlled the opening ten minutes comfortably, with chances from Lang and corners from both Freddie Potts and Matt Ritchie being defended by Bristol City defenders Rob Dickie and Zak Vyner.
The Robins in-form winger Anis Mehmeti attacked down the left flank several times, but the former Wycombe attacker was blocked off multiple times by 21-year-old Terry Devlin who arguably had his hardest challenge to date on paper from Mehmeti recent form.
The former Glentoran man made light work of his battles, as he continues to cement his place part of Pompey’s back four ahead of the injured Jordan Williams and the Zack Swanson who returned to the bench.
On 20 minutes, Bishop was through on goal and had his effort saved by Robins keeper Max O’Leary, but the Irishmen’s reflex was not enough as the ball fell back to the Pompey number nine who tapped it home to put the Blue Army one nil up.
Half Time: Portsmouth 1-0 Bristol City
In the second half, Cit
y came out with more confidence with some encouraging spells of play from Japanese loanee Yu Hirakawa, but his efforts were cancelled out by Connor Ogilvie and captain Marlon Pack, who played against the side he spent half of his career at.
But it was on 62 minutes when City lost the ball to Lang, who flicked it onto Bishop to set up Murphy to poke to ball under the legs of O’Leary to give Pompey a two-nil buffer with half an hour to play.
Owen Moxon came on for Dozzell, which will likely be one of the few changes Mousinho will have to make on Tuesday and Paddy Lane got some much-needed minutes as he came on for Matt Ritchie who put in yet another stellar performance since his homecoming to Fratton Park.
Then on 71 minutes, Murphy made a surging run past Vyner, before teeing up Lang to finish off the game for Pompey and achieve back-to-back three points at home.
Swanson then made his return when he come on for Bishop, pushing Lang up front and Lane to the middle, with the former Arsenal man filling in at right wing back.
And Elias Sorensen was the final Blues sub when he came on for Murphy who arguably played a man of the match worthy performance, just like in South Wales away at Swansea last weekend.
Full time: Portsmouth 3-0 Bristol City
Portsmouth: 13. Schmid (GK), 3. Ogilvie, 7. Pack (C), 5. Poole, 24. Devlin, 30. Ritchie (32. Lane), 8. Potts, 21. Dozzell (17. Moxon) 23. Murphy (18. Sorensen), 49. Lang, 9. Bishop (22. Swanson) - (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Manager: John Mousinho
Unused Subs: 31. Archer (GK), 15. Saydee, 16. McIntyre, 20. Silvera 25. Kamara
Goals: Bishop 20’ Murphy 62’ Lang 71’
Bookings: Dozzell 41’ (yellow), Lang 83’ (yellow), 86’ Lane (yellow)
Bristol City: 1. O’Leary (GK), 14. Vyner, 16. Dickie, 15. McNally, 3. Pring (Roberts), 29. McGuane (40. Earthy) 12. Knight (C), 7. Hirakawa, 6. Bird, 11. Mehmeti (20. Bell) 21. Wells (30. Armstrong) - (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused Subs: 23. Bajic (GK), 5. Atkinson, 9. Mayulu, 27. Cornick, 31. Morrison
Bookings: 8’ Dickie (yellow), 12’ Pring (yellow), 92’ Armstrong (yellow)
Referee: Sunny Gill
Venue: Fratton Park
Attendance: 21,944
After the game, Pompey Live's James Wilson caught up with assistant head coach Jon Harley on the touchline at PO4:
Join Jake Smith and 2 more Pompey fans on the next instalment of The Football Hour this Monday (December 9th) evening from 6pm. They'll be discussing this win over Bristol City and looking ahead to the midweek visit of Norwich City to Fratton Park!
Comments
Add a comment