John Mousinho's side do the unthinkable and return to winning ways by defeating the previously-unbeaten league leaders, Middlesbrough at Fratton Park.
Yang Min-hyeok scored his second in as many games to hand the Blues a shock victory.
Portsmouth picked up their first win in 5 league matches after a gritty performance against unbeaten Middlesbrough in PO4.
John Mousinho’s side picked up only their second home victory of the season, which is the form the Blues were very reliant on when they kept their league status last season.
The Blues also managed to do something that no one in the Championship had yet done, which is beat one of the sides occupying one of the automatic promotion places.
There were 0 changes for the Blues to the side that drew 2-2 with Watford in midweek.
However, Boro made four changes to their eleven, who played out a goalless draw vs Stoke at the Riverside this past Tuesday.
It was the hosts who dominated large parts of the first half, with Connor Chaplin coming close to scoring his first Pompey goal in six years, but the Ipswich loanee’s effort went just wide of Sol Brynn’s post.
Portsmouth did find a breakthrough and scored the only goal of the game, when Jordan Williams’ late ball off the right byline was met on the half-volley by Yang Min-hyeok.
The South Korean winger thumped the ball home in a rather reminiscent fashion to the one he scored this past Wednesday, to give Pompey a one-nil lead 23 minutes gone.
HALF-TIME: Portsmouth 1-0 Middlesbrough
Chaplin also came close to scoring in the second half and in front of the Fratton End, something he did multiple times in his first spell on the South Coast, but his shot at goal went just wide again.
John Swift was the Blues’ first change of the afternoon, as he made way for Hungarian playmaker Márk Kosznovszky just before the hour mark, as Boro brought off Sontje Hansen for Slovakian forward David Strelec.
Former Southampton left-back Matt Targett came close to an equaliser, but his shot was just wide of Josef Bursik’s goal, moments before the Newcastle loanee was subbed off with a rather hostile reception from the home crowd.
Edwards’ side kept the pressure piling on Portsmouth in search of stretching their unbeaten league run; however, the Blues managed to see through the win, as resilience and grit shone through the whole side, who cleared every ball Boro played at goal.
FULL-TIME: Portsmouth 1-0 Middlesbrough
Next up: John Mousinho’s side will receive a 2-week break on the training pitch until the Blues’ next encounter, which is a visit to the King Power to face Leicester City.
The last time Portsmouth met the Foxes was December 2011, when both sides played out a 1-1 draw in the East Midlands in at the time the ‘NPOWER’ Championship.
Martí Cifuentes’ side currently occupies third place in the Championship, and are on a 7-game unbeaten run in league action.
Portsmouth: 26. Bursik (GK), 2. Williams (24. Devlin), 5. Poole, 4. Knight, 3. Ogilvie, 7. Pack (C), 21. Dozzell, 47. Min-hyeok (29. Blair) 8. Swift (18. Kosznovszky), 36. Chaplin (10. Segečić), 9. Bishop (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused subs: 30. Killip (GK), 11. Bianchini, 14. Matthews, 16. Le Roux, 22. Swanson
Goals: Min-hyeok 23’
Bookings: Pack 74, Bursik 83’
Head coach: John Mousinho
Middlesbrough: 31. Brynn (GK), 12. Ayling (C) (16. Browne), 6. Fry, 5. Jones 2. Brittian, 18. Morris, 7. Hackney (11. Whittaker), 3. Targett (10. Burgzorg), 27. Hansen (13. Strelec), 9. Conway, 20. Sène (19. Nypan) (Formation: 3-4-2-1)
Unused subs: 33. McLaughlin (GK), 22. Silvera, 24. Bangura, 42. Kanté
Bookings: Brittain 68’
Manager: Rob Edwards
Referee: Anthony Backhouse
Venue: Fratton Park
Attendance: 20,397 (including 2,158 away fans)
Listen to the Pompey Live: Extra-Time podcast to hear the thoughts of Jake Smith, Kirsty Roxanne and James Wilson following today's victory for Portsmouth in PO4.
The next instalment of The Football Hour with Jake Smith on Monday (October 6th) evening will have even more reaction to this weekend's SkyBet Championship action, as well as a review of the Portsmouth Women's WSL 2 meeting with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Sunday (October 5th) afternoon.
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