Pompey beat nine man Crawley Town to notch up their first League One victory of the season.
A tight match was turned on its head when Josh Simpson and Hope Akpan both received two yellow cards followed by their marching orders from the busy referee Mr Deadman.
Pompey gave a debut to Gabor Geypes in defence and there was a welcome return to the midfield for Lee Williamson alongside Brian Howard and Darryl Russell. It's a strong midfield trio at this level, Williamson and Russell are Howard's enforcers, allowing the former Reading man to run the game.
Unfortunately, Geypes suffered an injury just before the half-time break following a headed clearance, he appeared to twist something and limped off in some pain. He was replaced by Adam Webster, Michael Appleton entrusting the defensive duties in the youngster ahead of the experienced Johnny Ertyl.
Gabor Geypes [or is it Kevin Long?!] passes the ball from the back in the first half.
Geypes looked solid in the 40 minutes he was on the pitch, hopefully he won't be absent for too long. It has to be said that his replacement Webster also had a good game, probably his best performance in a Pompey shirt since making his full debut last season. Slowly but surely he is making progress, gaining experience with each minute on the pitch, he's quite tall too which is an important physical attribute to have in today's game.
Adam Webster takes a throw-in in front of the East Stand.
Akpan had provided the home team with their brightest moment in the first half flashing a volley just wide of Andersen's left hand post.
Simpson was dismissed before the half-time break and Akpan in the second half. Mr Deadman also dismissed Crawley's manager Ritchie Barker sending him to the stand.
Before they scored Pompey had one good effort on target from Jack Compton who fired in a dipping free-kick from the edge of the box, over the defensive wall only to see his effort tipped over the cross bar.
Jack Compton's free kick.
Clearcut chances were few and far between and it was not until the introduction of Ashley Harris in the 70th minute that Pompey really started to capitalise on their numerical advantage. His goal came from a far post header after fellow substitute Adam Webster swung in a perfect cross. His celebrations in front of and with the travelling faithful were rewarded by Mr Deadman with a yellow card as is often the way these days. He'd been on the pitch for four minutes.
Seven minutes from time Crawley conceded a free-kick on the edge of their penalty area, former Pompey player Shaun Cooper fouling Izale McLeod and Luke Rodgers curled in a perfect shot to double Pompey's lead.
Luke Rodgers and Lee Williamson stand over the ball before Rodgers scored from the free kick.
Two minutes later McLeod was rewarded for a much better afternoon's work, following his recent below par performances, when youngster Harris drifted inside and slipped him the perfect pass. McLeod rounded the keeper and passed the ball in to an unguarded net.
With the fourth official signalling five added minutes the Pompey fans were calling for more goals and that looked a possibility as Crawley spent some of that time down to eight men following an injury to one of their players. However, they couldn't make any further breakthroughs before Mr Deadman called proceedings to a halt.
A welcome win for Pompey. Assuming that the ten point deduction imposed by the Football League does get applied when they leave administration, the three points leaves them on minus five, still at the foot of the table but clearly a team very capable of pushing in to the top half.
Two wins in a week, the penalty shootout win over AFC Bournemouth in the JPT being the other, mean it's probably fair to say that Pompey's 'pre-season' is over, it's time to push on and focus on gathering more points. There is still plenty of catching-up to do of course but the 'pre-season spillover', caused by the off-field problems, ended here.
Final word to Crawley, expect them to be 'up there'. They were not as good a team as AFC Bournemouth [IMHO] but they have enough about them and enough promotion related momentum to be challenging at the right end of the table.
FT: Crawley Town 0-3 Portsmouth (HT: 0-0)
More Match Action Pictures
First half action I/III - Russell and McLeod in the picture
First half action II/III - Williamson prepares to clear, not by 'hoofing it' though. Pompey's players tend to try and pass their way out of trouble, there were very few long balls played out from the back.
First half action III/III - Pompey defend a Crawley set-piece
Second half action I/II - Crawley defend a Pompey corner, Rodgers and Russell in the picture
Second half action II/II - Rodgers again on the 'keeper at a set piece.
Portsmouth versus Crawley Town: Mikkel Andersen,
Josh Thompson, Kevin Long, Gabor Gyepes (replaced by Adam Webster in the 41st minute), Jon Harley, Lee Williamson, Darel Russell,
Brian Howard (replaced by Liam Walker in the 83rd minute), Jack Compton (replaced by Ashley Harris in the 70th minute), Luke Rodgers and Izale McLeod. Substitutes not used: Simon Eastwood, Johnny Ertl and Conor Clifford
Referee: Mr Deadman, he will have better days. I shared a tweet with @PMRyderEsq before the match stating that the referees at this level [seem to] let a lot more [challenges] go and make more errors. In contrast Mr Deadman didn't let very much go at all and as a result he boxed himself in, leaving no room for manouvre, issuing yellow cards rashly and sometimes in error as TV replays showed afterwards. It just so happened that on this occasion Pompey were the beneficiary, there will be other days this season with other referees when Pompey will be on the receiving end. Afterall, it always evens itself out at the end of the day, doesn't it? [Chuckling to myself with the use of that cliche, I wonder if anyone's ever done some statistical analysis on that?].
Attendance: 5,050 (including 1,634 travelling Pompey fans), all the pre-match talk was of a record crowd. Did that materialise? Let me know @PompeyChicken on Twitter.
Man-Of-The-Match: Ashley Harris was the standout player for me. His arrival provided the extra energy required to take Pompey to victory and his goal lifted the spirits of the team.
Next up for Pompey: Walsall in League One at Fratton Park on Saturday September 15th, kick-off 3PM
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