A controversial penalty decision kickstarts a Watford revival at Vicarage Road, where Portsmouth are beaten right at the death.
Kwadwo Baah is hit with instant karma after a 95th-minute heartbreak for Pompey, as John Mousinho's side leave Vicarage Road with nothing after a narrow 2-1 defeat at the hands of Tom Cleverly’s Watford.
It was substitute Rocco Vata who won it for the Hornets just a mere 30 seconds after the 5 minutes of added time were up before full-time.
However, the action was focused more at full-time, when the German winger Baah taunted Pompey fans with the ‘Take the L’ celebration, but the Fortnite dance came back to bite the former Rochdale man as he was given a red card for his disrespectful taunt towards the visiting Blues fans after the final whistle.
Focus has also heavily fallen onto referee Geoff Eltringham’s shoulders, after the official made several questionable decisions against Portsmouth, to which John Mousinho had to keep level-headed about in his post-match interview to avoid a fine from The FA.
The first half was extremely positive for Pompey, as just 10 minutes in the ball fell to the feet of right-back Zack Swanson who fired the ball past Daniel Bachmann to make it one-nil to the Blues.
It was Matt Ritchie's quick free kick that laid the ball off to winger Josh Murphy’s who's cross was cleared, but the ball fell to feet of the former Arsenal man to give the Blue Army the lead.
Before that Bournemouth loanee Daniel Jebbison was left one-on-one with keeper Nicolas Schmid after captain Marlon Pack failed to track the Canadian forward down, but Jebbsion’s effort was hit straight at the Austrian shot stopper, just minutes into the game.
Callum Lang also had a chance at nil-nil to score a fifth goal in two games, but the number forty-nine could not quite squeeze it past Bachmann, with defender Ryan Porteous right on the Pompey attackers back to distract him from making it one-nil to Pompey.
Half-time: Watford 0-1 Portsmouth
Portsmouth were forced into a change early on into the second half, after the Gosport born Ritchie felt his hamstring just moments after the ball was kicked from kick off for the second forty-five, the thirty-five-year-old was then replaced by Paddy Lane.
Watford also made a substitute on half-time, when James Morris was replaced by the scorer of the winning goal - Roco Vata, just after the interval.
Just over ten minutes into the second period, the Hornets were given an extremely controversial penalty by official Geoff Eltringham when Freddie Potts brought down Baah quite clearly outside the penalty area, but the linesman gave Eltringham the green light to award the penalty amid huge anger and frustration from John Mousinho's players and coaching staff.
D.R Congo international Edo Kayembe stepped up to the spot, sending Schmid the wrong way to score the equalizer for the Hornets, but tensions continued to brew when the midfielder had a scuffle with Schmid when trying to receive the ball after the goal.
Blues skipper Pack and Schmid were then booked after their protest for the actions of Kayembe and the penalty decision itself, but Kayembe was also punished with a yellow card for his actions after scoring from the spot.
The Blues continued to shower their anger and frustration during the game when more Portsmouth players were booked, Murphy carded shortly after the penalty and Lang was booked just a few minutes later.
Swanson was also given a yellow card just before he was substituted by Terry Devlin and Lang was off for Owen Moxon.
Moxon was then carded on ninety minutes to record the fifth booking of the day for Pompey, before five minutes were added to the 90.
Then on ninety-five minutes, substitute Moussa Sissoko wriggled past Towler, who took a heavy deflection of the ball, before falling to the Irishman Vata to win it for Watford with the final kick off the game.
Full time: Watford 2-1 Portsmouth
After the full-time whistle, Baah went over to the travelling fans and decided it would be clever to taunt the Blue Army, but Terry Devlin quickly stormed towards Baah and had it not been for Bachmann holding back the Northern Irishman, things could have gotten pretty nasty at full-time between the two sets of players.
Baah ran as quickly away as he could from Devlin, then Connor Ogilvie wanted words with the Watford number 34, but manager Tom Cleverley held Ogilvie back and pushed Baah to one side and the former Manchester United midfielder did not look best pleased with his players attitude at all.
Pompey leave Vicarage Road in Hertfordshire empty handed and deflated with the Blues having at least a point slipped away from them.
Luckily for Portsmouth the Christmas period means that fixtures come in thick and fast into the New-year, as John Mousinho’s side travel to Bristol City on Sunday, who they beat 3-0 at Fratton Park just 3 weeks ago.
Watford: 1. Bachmann, 5. Porteous, 6. Pollock, 22. Morris (11. Vata), 2. Ngakia (45. Andrews), 39. Kayembe (17. Sissoko), 10. Louza, 37. Larouci, 34. Baah, 18. Jebbsion (19. Bayo), 8. Chakvetadze
Unused Subs: 23. Bond (GK), 3. Sierralta, 7. Ince, 14. Dwomoh, 36. Ebosele
Goals: Kayembe 57’ (Penalty), Vata 95’
Manager: Tom Cleverly
Bookings: Baah 30’ (Yellow), Kayembe 59’ (yellow), Baah (post-match) (red)
Portsmouth: 13. Schmid (GK), 3. Ogilvie, 7. Pack (C), 4. Towler, 22. Swanson (24. Devlin), 30. Ritchie (32. Lane), 8. Potts, 21. Dozzell, 23. Murphy, 49. Lang (17. Moxon), 9. Bishop (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused Subs: 31. Archer (GK), 15. Saydee, 16. McIntyre, 18. Sorensen, 20. Silvera, 25. Kamara
Goals: Swanson 10’
Manager: John Mousinho
Bookings: Pack 57’ (yellow), Schmid 59’ (yellow), Murphy 60’ (yellow), Lang 64’ (yellow), Swanson 75’ (yellow), Moxon 90’ (yellow)
Referee: Geoff Eltringham
Venue: Vicarage Road
Attendance: 20,696
You can replay the Pompey Live: Extra-Time podcast to hear the analysis of Jake Smith and Andrew Barnard, who were reporting on the game LIVE from Vicarage Road.
Catch the next episode of The Football Hour with Jake Smith on Friday (December 27th) evening from 6pm to hear even more reaction to Pompey's Boxing Day defeat, as well as a preview of the Blues' final game of 2024 at Bristol City.
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