Makenzie Kirk's late strike in PO4 proved too little, too late for Portsmouth, who fall to defeat against the league leaders.
It was a brace for Coventry forward Brandon Thomas-Asante, who tapped the ball home in the first half from a City corner, before he placed the ball past Josef Bursik in a one-v-one in the second 45.
John Mousinho made one change to the side that sealed a point away at Leicester last Saturday, with Zak Swanson coming in at right-back for Jordan Williams, who was nowhere to be seen in the match-day squad.
The Sky Blues shifted through the gears from minute one and had Pompey on the back foot for the majority of the first 45.
City came extremely close to taking the lead early on, when there was a messy goal-line scramble off the back of Victor Torp’s in-swinging corner; however, Pompey were able to just about clear their lines.
There was then some tension brewing on the touch line, between Mousinho and City boss Frank Lampard, who had several bickering’s with each other from their respective technical areas.
The exerted pressure eventually paid off for the visitors, who inevitably took the lead when Thomas-Asante was on guard at the back post to tap home Ellis Simms’ laid-off header from Matt Grimes’ corner to make it 1-0 half an hour gone.
HALF-TIME: Portsmouth 0-1 Coventry City
Pompey started the second half much brighter and had City on the back foot, and came close to scoring an equaliser on multiple occasions.
However, those missed chances punished the Blues, who then got caught on the counterattack, when Simms managed to muscle Connor Ogilvie off the ball, before placing the ball across to Thomas-Asante.
The former Salford and West Brom man then burst forward with pace towards Bursik before he sliced the ball home to make it 2-0 with 56 minutes gone.
Thomas-Asante then almost made it a hat-trick for himself, but his effort smacked the crossbar of Bursik’s goal.
64 minutes gone and Terry Devlin came on for Zak Swanson, as well as Adrain Segečić for Yang Min-hyeok, but the Australian substitute lasted less than 10 minutes on the pitch until he had to be replaced by Kirk after picking up a foot injury.
Mousinho then made a further two subs, with Hayden Matthews replacing Josh Knight and Florian Bianchini replacing Ogilvie, with the Swansea loanee finishing the 90 minutes more as a wing-back.
Connor Chaplin came close to a consolation against his former club; however, the Ipswich loanee’s effort smacked the outside of the far post.
There was an additional seven minutes of added time, and with one minute of that time to go, Kirk was able to lift the ball above the head of Carl Rushworth to make it 2-1, but it was too late for the Blues to claw back a successful comeback.
FULL-TIME: Portsmouth 1-2 Coventry City
Next up: This weekend's action will remain at Fratton Park on Saturday, when Portsmouth welcome Mark Robins’ Stoke City in a lunchtime kick-off on Saturday.
Portsmouth: 26. Bursik (GK), 22. Swanson (24. Devlin), 5. Poole, 4. Knight (14. Matthews), 3. Ogilvie (11. Bianchini), 7. Pack (C), 21. Dozzell, 47. Min-hyeok (10. Segečić) (25. Kirk), 8. Swift, 9. Bishop (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused subs: 30. Killip (GK), 16. Le Roux, 17. Bowat, 18. Kosznovszky
Goals: Kirk 90+6’
Bookings: Swift 85’
Head coach: John Mousinho
Coventry: 19. Rushworth (GK), 27. Van Ewijk (20. Kesler-Hayden), 4. Thomas, 26. Woolfenden, 15. Kitching, 3. Dasilva (21. Bidwell), 29. Torp (8. Allen), 6. Grimes (C), 10. Mason-Clark (7. Sakamoto), 23. Thomas-Asante, 9. Simms (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused subs: 13. Wilson (GK), 11. Wright, 28. Eccles, 33. Brau, 54. Andrews
Goals: Thomas-Asante 30’ & 56’
Bookings: Van Ewijk 50’
Manager: Frank Lampard
Referee: Gavin Ward
Venue: Fratton Park
Attendance: 20,321 (including 2,186 away fans)
Replay the post-match analysis through the latest Pompey Live: Extra-Time podcast, which was fronted by Jake Smith, Henry Deacon and James Wilson LIVE on Express FM.
The Football Hour will be back on Friday (October 24th) evening from 6pm with even more reaction to tonight's game and a look ahead to the next - Stoke City the visitors to Fratton Park on Saturday (October 25th) lunchtime.
Comments
Add a comment