The Blues suffer a late sucker punch at Ewood Park and have to settle for a point against Blackburn Rovers.
Despite it seeming like Connor Ogilvie had won it for Portsmouth on 84 minutes, on his 150th game in charge, John Mousinho’s side were sucker punched inside the four minutes of additional time.
The draw means that Pompey remain 19th, one point ahead of Blackburn, but with Oxford winning away at Preston North End last night, the Championship relegation battle continues to heat up.
There were 2 changes to the side that was narrowly defeated 1-0 at home to Hull City last Saturday.
In came Conor Chaplain and Gustavo Caballero, as Adrian Segečić and Harvey Blair dropped to the bench, while Conor Shaughnessy returned to the match-day squad.
It was a cagey affair in the first 45, with both sides trying not to slip up, as Pompey had the bulk of possession on Michael O’Neill’s side.
Ebou Adams put his body on the line to deny Yūki Ōhashi’s shot from Ryōya Morishita’s header down, but the Rovers forward was sternly denied from a blocked tackle by the Pompey midfielder.
Portsmouth themselves did have chances, with Chaplin coming close when the ball fell to the Ipswich loanee, but his swerved effort went just wide of Balázs Tóths net.
Adams and Adam Forshaw then collided into the advertising boards on the by-line, with Adams having to receive treatment, but he confidently continued as he returned to the pitch.
HALF-TIME: Blackburn Rovers 0-0 Portsmouth
Ryan Alebiosu’s ball into the 18-yard box was missed by Ōhashi, who was bundled into by Devlin, before the ball fell to Yuri Ribeiro, whose effort went wide of Nicolas Schmid’s goal.
Regan Poole went down holding his ankle and ultimately had to be withdrawn on for Shaughnessy on 67 minutes.
With 6 minutes to go, Pompey took the lead when Zak Swanson's free-kick from 40-yard's out fell to Ogilvie, who sliced the ball home after Adams, then Jacob Brown’s cushion of the ball fell to the Blues' number 3 to make it 1-0.
However, Rovers managed to find an equaliser when Morishita got the better of Blair, before he pumped the ball into Hayden Carter, whose effort squeezed into the net off the glove of Schmid, and then the post to make it 1-1 late on.
FULL-TIME: Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Portsmouth
Next up: On Tuesday night, John Mousinho’s side return to Fratton Park, as Portsmouth welcome Vítor Matos' Swansea City in a 19:45 kick-off.
Blackburn: 22. Tóth (GK), 20. Cahsin, 15. McLoughlin (C), 17. Carter, 2. Alebiosu, 28. Forshaw (24. Baradji), 5. Gardner-Hickman (31. Montgomery), 4. Ribeiro (14. De Neve), 25. Morishita, 29. Jørgensen, 23. Ōhashi (11. Guðjohnsen) (Formation: 3-4-2-1)
Unused subs: 35. Michalski (GK), 8. Tavares, 21. Afolayan, 26. O’Riordan, 38. Atcheson
Goals: Carter 90+3’
Bookings: Cashin 84’, Carter 90+5’
Manager: Michael O’Neill
Portsmouth: 1. Schmid (GK), 24. Devlin, 5. Poole (6. Shaughnessy), 3. Ogilvie, 22. Swanson, 7. Pack (C), 38. Adams, 47. Caballero (29. Blair), 36. Chaplin (10. Segečić), 27. Alli, 9. Bishop (40. Brown) (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused subs: 26. Bursik (GK), 2. Williams, 16. Le Roux, 17. Bowat, 55. Dia
Goals: Ogilvie 84’
Head coach: John Mousinho
Referee: Tom Nield
Venue: Ewood Park
Attendance: 14,100 (including 1,845 Pompey fans)
Jake Smith, James Wilson and Danny Thompson provided full reaction to the game LIVE on Express FM after the full-time whistle in Lancashire - You can download and listen back to the Pompey Live: Extra-Time podcast now.
The Football Hour will return at 6 O'Clock on Monday (March 9th) evening with Jake Smith and 2 more Blues fans to review this game in further detail and look ahead to the midweek meeting with Swansea City at Fratton Park.
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