Portsmouth avoided letting a two goal lead against ten men Sheffield United slip with a last minute winner in a 3-2 victory.

Team News

John Mousinho made three changes to the derby defeat. Tyrese Shade dropped out of the squad due to injury, Ebou Adams and Colby Bishop dropped to the bench. Trio Adrian Segecic, Marko Milovanovic and Iyad Mohamed came into the starting 11.

Chris Wilder named the same squad that beat Lincoln City 3-0 at Bramall Lane on Saturday afternoon.

First Half

It wasn’t a first half for the neutrals as both teams only managed one shot on target in the first 45 minutes. Pompey were able to maintain the majority of possession but lacked the quality in the final third and quick build up play to create any significant chances.

It was Sheffield United who had the better chances early on Tom Cannon was denied at a tight angle by Nicolas Schmid in the 17th minute. And in the 22nd minute Sydie Peck put in a wonderful cross from the left into the Pompey box Cannon missed it, the ball went to Patrick Bamford at the back post but he was unable to make a clean connection to it and direct it towards goal.

The game was crying out for some attacking quality and that’s what it got in the 40th minute as Zak Swanson’s long range effort gave Pompey the lead. Peck cleared the ball straight to Swanson in acers of space in front of the North Stand he set up a right footed shot from the edge of the box and it flew over Michael Cooper and into the top right corner to break the deadlock.

Thing’s got even better for the blues three minutes later as for the second time in a row the opposition went down to ten men just before half time as Hamza Choudhary received his second yellow card after taking out Ryan Kavuma-Mcqueen for a second time.

Second Half

Pompey were starting to dominate the second half with a golden chance for Kavuma-Mcqueen but his blew his chance by hitting his one-on-one effort straight at Cooper.

The 17 year old did redeem himself by setting up Adrian Segecic to score Pompey’s second goal of the game in the 54th minute. McQueen picked the ball up on the left wing in front of the South Stand, he drove into the box by getting past Tahith Chong, he squared it to Segecic in space and the Croatian easily tapped it into an empty net to double the blues lead.

However, just as Pompey seemed to have this game wrapped up Sheffield United hit back to make it 2-1. Chong played in a deep cross from the left to find Japhet Tanganga in space, the Sheffeiled United captain hit his low first time efort into the bottom left corner to give Sheffield United a lifeline.

The game took another turn eight minutes later as ten men Sheffield United stunned Fratton Park to make it 2-2. Kalvin Phillip’s corner from the left found the head of Cannon inside the six yard box, his header went through the legs of Schmid to equalise for the Blades.

However, Pompey fought until the end to save themselves from embarrassment and score a last minute winner. Pompey worked the ball to the left wing with Terry Devlin, the substitute played a through ball to Adrian Segecic inside the box, who cut it back and Ebou Adams hit a first time volley to give Pompey all three points.