Colby Bishop opens his account for the season to rescue a point for Pompey at The Hawthorns.
Despite Mikey Johnston’s first half strike from distance, John Mousinho’s side were able to rescue a point, as the Blues make it 2 away games from 2 without being defeated.
Pompey now sit in 11th place 3 games in, just below arch rivals Southampton in 10th place on goals scored.
This was not your conventional one-all draw, however, with West Bromwich Albion being denied a controversial spot-kick after Bishop’s equaliser, which infuriated head coach Ryan Mason, who in his third Championship game as Baggies boss, was awarded a red card.
John Mousinho made two changes to the side that were defeated 2-1 by Norwich City, with Zack Swanson replacing Jordan Williams at right-back and Florian Bianchini replacing Callum Lang, who will miss up to the next four to eight weeks with a recurring hamstring injury he was forced off with last weekend.
Adrian Segečić, like he has in the first three of his Portsmouth games, showed glimpses of quality early on, with the Aussie attacker winning a free kick which Josh Murphy took, but the Baggies cleared the winger’s set-piece behind for a corner.
Florian Bianchini had one of the best chances up until 20 minutes gone, when the French winger attempted a shot at goal, but ex-Blues loanee Josh Griffiths was able to get both gloves on the ball comfortably.
Irish international Mickey Johnston gave the hosts the lead 25 minutes gone, when the winger’s effort from 25 yards out flew past Nicolas Schmid into the far right-hand corner of the Portsmouth net when he was left in acres of space outside the penalty area to make it 1-0 to West Brom.
HALF-TIME: West Brom 1-0 Portsmouth
Alex Mowatt, who scored three times against Pompey last season, struck the post early after the interval, but there was no navy and white striped shirt able to put away the rebound to make it two-nil, with the Blues being leniently let off conceding a second.
However, just moments later, Josh Murphy made an encouraging run down the left-wing past Tom Fellows, before his looping ball into the perimeters of the penalty area met the head of Colby Bishop, who leaped above the six-foot-three Nat Phillips to head the ball past Griffiths to make it 1-1 just before the hour-mark.
Straight after Pompey’s equaliser, John Mousinho made his first changes of the afternoon with a double substitution, which saw John Swift coming off for Luke Le Roux, and Florian Bianchini coming off for Thomas Waddingham, who joined the goal scorer Bishop up front, which pushed Segečić out to the right flank.
There was a call for a penalty in the Blues’ 18-yard-box, when Norwegian striker Aune Heggebø was chopped down from behind by Connor Ogilvie, but referee Elliot Bell waved away the shouts of penalty, despite several appeals from the West Brom players, staff, and fans
This caused outrage from Baggies head coach Ryan Mason, who was first booked, before he continued his frustrations at the fourth official, which caused the former Tottenham and Hull City man as a player to then be awarded a red card and sent up to sit in the West Stand.
Moments later, Pompey almost took the lead when Segečić’s left-footed cross from the right flank met Bishop, but the Blues number nine’s header went just past the post.
Bishop’s afternoon was then over, along with Zack Swanson’s, with the duo being replaced by Jordan Williams and Terry Devlin, who came on to play in behind Waddigham, who moved up-front on his own with just under 15 minutes left to play.
Márk Kosznovszky was the fifth and final substitute from Mousinho, with the Hungarian playmaker coming on to make his Championship debut, replacing Adrian Segečić.
There were an additional six minutes of added time, as West Brom had a corner with the last tick of the game, but Terry Devlin put his body on the line to clear the ball away and seal a point for Pompey and stop a third league win in a row for The Baggies.
FULL-TIME: West Brom 1-1 Portsmouth
Next up: It’s back to Fratton Park for John Mousinho’s side next Saturday, when the Blues take on Preston North End in a 3pm kick-off.
Paul Heckingbottom's side are unbeaten in the Championship so far this season, with a one-all draw with QPR on the opening day, followed by two consecutive wins at Deepdale, where they have defeated Leicester City (2-1) and Ipswich Town (1-0), who were both only relegated from the Premier League last season.
Can Pompey achieve not only their first Championship home victory of the season, but their first in all competitions? With a record so far that mirrors two games at Fratton Park, with two defeats coming against Reading in the Carabao Cup Round One, and a 2-1 defeat to Norwich City in the first league home game of the campaign.
West Brom: 20. Griffiths (GK), 2 Furlong (C), 3. Phillips, 6. Campbell, 4. Styles, 8. Molumby (13. Collyer), 27. Mowatt, 31. Fellows (7. Wallace), 21. Price (9. Maja), 11. Johnston (10. Grant,), 19. Heggebø (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused subs: 23. Wildsmith (GK), 15. Taylor, 17. Diakité, 41. Williams, 44. Cole
Goals: Johnston 26’
Bookings: Campbell 7’, Mowatt 70’, Ryan Mason (red card) 70’
Head Coach: Ryan Mason
Portsmouth: 1. Schmid (GK), 22. Swanson ( 2. Williams), 5. Poole, 6. Shaughnessy, 3. Ogilvie, 8. Swift (16. Le Roux), 21. Dozzell, 11. Bianchini (20. Waddingham), 10. Segečić (18. Kosznovszky), 23. Murphy, 9. Bishop (C) (24. Devlin) (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused subs: 30. Killip (GK), 14. Matthews, 17. Bowat, 47. Min-hyeok
Goals: Bishop 56’
Bookings: Swift 43’, Poole 63’, Bishop 66’, Le Roux 78’, Waddingham 80’
Head Coach: John Mousinho
Venue: The Hawthorns
Referee: Elliot Bell
Attendance: 24,818 (Including 2,473 Pompey fans)
The Pompey Live: Extra-Time podcast from today's broadcast at The Hawthorns, presented by Jake Smith, Kirsty Roxanne and James Wilson, is also available to listen back to if you'd like further reaction to Pompey's stalemate with West Brom!
Jake will also be on air this coming Monday (August 25th) evening from 6pm with 2 more Blues fans to provide even more reaction on Express FM.
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