2 goals either side of the interval at Fratton Park earns the Blues a brilliant victory on New Year's Day.
Portsmouth kickstart 2025 by climbing out of the Championship relegation zone following a 4-0 victory against Swansea City at Fratton Park.
Not only is it the first win of the new year but it’s back to winning ways for John Mousinho’s side after a tough Christmas period which saw the Blues pick up zero points on the road away from home at Watford and Bristol City last week.
After the rotational changes Mousinho made at Bristol City, 4 players made their return to the eleven after the three-nil defeat in the south-west this past Sunday.
In came Freddie Potts for Owen Moxon, Josh Murphy for Sammy Silvera, Callum Lang for Matt Ritchie and Zack Swanson for Terry Devlin.
Paddy Lane kept his place in the eleven, this time playing in Ritchie's position on the right, rather than left wing, where he played at Ashton Gate.
Swansea held the bulk of the possession not only in the opening twenty minutes before the first Pompey goal was scored, but Luke Williams’ side carried the ball for 73% of the game compared to Portsmouth’s 27% ball possession.
The Blues piled on the pressure when the Swans had hold of the ball, with the engines of Lang and Lane, pressing Ben Cabango and Harry Darling at the back and putting keeper Lawrence Vigouroux on thin ice whenever the Chilean shot-stopper had the ball at his feet.
The pressing Pompey were doing eventually paid off, when Liam Cullen gifted the ball to Swanson who sprinted down the right-hand side with the ball, playing a one-two with Lane, before feeding the ball into the ex-Cardiff Man Josh Murphy who fired the ball home to make it 1-0 to Portsmouth, following with the iconic Cardiff City ‘Ayatollah’ pose in front of the visiting Swansea fans.
Pompey then made it 2 just before the half-hour mark, where Connor Ogilive's long range header into the box caused chaos for Harry Darling and Josh Tymon who let Lane come in from behind to poke the ball into the bottom left-hand corner, giving the Pompey number 32 a first Championship career goal and his first of the season.
Half time: Portsmouth 2-0 Swansea City
Swansea had chances to pull one back early in the second half, but Ji-sung Eom’s effort could not quite roll under Nicholas Schmid’s legs following Grimes' through ball over the top of the Pompey back line.
Josh Tymon then arguably had Swansea’s best chance of the game, but the former Stoke man’s effort hit the inside of the crossbar and came back into play, had it gone on there would have been nothing that keeper Schmid could have done to stop it.
Portsmouth then won a free kick against the run of play, which West Ham loanee Potts fired into the area, where Ryley Towler was there to head home to make it 3-0 to Pompey just after the hour mark and put the Blues on a comfortable road to three points.
Moments later, Lane kept the ball in play from a Portsmouth Corner playing a one-two with Potts, to then lay it off outside the penalty area to Josh Murphy whose effort would have been a goal of the year contender for 2025 on day one had the number 23’s effort had gone in, but Vigouroux managed to get hand onto the ball, to push it out for a corner.
However, John Mousinho’s side were not finished, when with ten minutes of normal time remaining, Bishop was handed the ball on a plate by Murphy, slotting the ball home to send Vigouroux the wrong way to make it 4.
Full time: Portsmouth 4-0 Swansea City
Next up: Portsmouth will make the long 338-mile trip to Tyne and Wear this Sunday, as they visit promotion-chasing Sunderland at the Stadium Of Light in a selected TV kick off at 3pm.
Portsmouth: 13. Schmid (GK), 3. Ogilvie, 7. Pack (C), 4. Towler, 22. Swanson, 32. Lane (30. Ritchie), 8. Potts, 21. Dozzell, 23. Murphy (24. Devlin) 49. Lang (18. Sorensen), 9. Bishop (15. Saydee) (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused Subs: 31. Archer (GK), 2. Williams, 16. McIntyre, 17. Moxon, 20. Silvera
Manager: John Mousinho
Goals: Murphy 22’ Lane 29’ Towler 61’ Bishop 78’
Bookings: Pack 44’
Swansea City: 22. Vigouroux (GK), 14. Tymon, 6. Darling, 5. Cabango (2. Key), 26. Naughton (23. Christie) 8. Grimes (C), 4. Fulton (25. Peart-Harris), 35. Ronald, 19. Bianchini, 10. Eom, 20. Cullen (9. Vipotnik) (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused Subs: 33. McLaughlin (GK), 7. Allen, 21. Tjoe a On, 36. Lloyd, 47. Abdulai
Manager: Luke Williams
Referee: James Linington
Venue: Fratton Park
Attendance: 20,427
You can replay the full post-match debrief as heard on Express FM with Jake Smith, Joe Wood and James Wilson - The panel provided analysis on today's game on Pompey Live: Extra-Time!
For even more reaction to this game, make sure you tune in and listen to the next episode of The Football Hour, which airs this Friday (January 3rd) evening from 6pm! Jake Smith will be joined in the studio by Tom Chappell to review today's victory and look ahead to Portsmouth's next Championship match away at Sunderland.
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