Portsmouth 3-1 Preston North End RECAP and highlights as Colby Bishop penalty clinches the points
Defeat on the road for PNE at Fratton Park
This was Preston North End's first trip to Fratton Park in almost 12 years - and a first ever for manager Paul Heckingbottom. For the Lilywhites, it had been 289 days without a league win on the road; they arrived in Portsmouth on the back of a strong showing against the league leaders. Next up was the side sitting bottom of the Championship, with more than one thousand supporters making the long trip down to the south coast.
Fratton Park has not been the fortress it was for Pompey in League One, so far this season, but news of Colby Bishop's return to the squad generated a lively pre-match atmosphere and that noise was sustained come kick-off. It started scrappy and stayed scrappy, with Portsmouth giving Preston absolutely no time or space on the ball; the visitors badly lacked quality and composure, with any form of control completely non-existent.
And, bit-by-bit, the home side began to grew in confidence - every 50/50 and duel won serving as a boost to the blue shirts. Shots were not troubling Freddie Woodman in the PNE goal, but they were coming; at the other end, North End could not muster any efforts. Emil Riis had seen a penalty appeal waved away, after he touched the ball past goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid and went down. But, the bulk of the play was in North End's half.
With 36 minutes on the clock, it was a familiar who found the breakthrough for John Mousinho's side. Pompey's corner from the right was punched out by Woodman and Josh Murphy collected, looked up and fizzed the ball through a crowd of bodies - and past the North End. Matters were made worse right before the whistle, when another corner was sent in, missed by Woodman and tucked home by Connor Ogilvie.
Things simply had to change, with PNE miles off it in the first half and second best in every single department. A triple substitution was actioned by Heckingbottom, who introduced Ryan Ledson, Mads Frokjaer and Stefan Thordason for Ben Whiteman, Brad Potts and Duane Holmes. And, it took the Lilywhites five minutes to reduce the deficit. Ledson sent the ball through with the outside of his boot and Riis kept a cool head, to prod his effort into the bottom left corner and restore some hope.
Suddenly, North End looked back into the game and nerves began to jangle as a couple of deliveries into Portsmouth's box caused problems - ex-Pompey man Jack Whatmough saw a deflected header almost creep past Schmid. But, the visitors limited PNE to precious few quality opportunities and as the game progressed into the latter stages, they became more dominant once again.
In the 89th minute, the points - and Pompey's second win of the season - were wrapped up. Andrew Hughes was penalised for a foul on Callum Lang and the home side's fairy-tale moment arrived, as substitute Bishop stepped up and sent Woodman the wrong way.
PNE XI: Woodman; Storey, Whatmough, Hughes, Potts (Thordarson 46'), Whiteman (Ledson 46'), McCann (Bowler 81'), Kesler-Hayden, Holmes (Frokjaer 46'), Greenwood (Okkels 78'), Riis. PNE unused subs: Cornell, Best, Nelson, Stewart. Attendance: 20,295 (1,062 away)