Luton and Barnsley turn screw on Portsmouth - but Sunderland and Charlton are held

Pompey find themselves nine points behind Luton after the Blues' 1-1 draw at Plymouth - after the Hatters' remarkable recent form continued with a comfortable 3-0 home win over Wycombe.
Pompey put the pressure on at Plymouth Picture: Joe Pepler - Digital SouthPompey put the pressure on at Plymouth Picture: Joe Pepler - Digital South
Pompey put the pressure on at Plymouth Picture: Joe Pepler - Digital South

Mick Harford's men are on 68 points after they saw off Wycombe thanks to goals by James Collins, Jason Cummings and George Moncur - who repeated his late-goal trick seen against Pompey 11 days ago.

With Pompey's win;ess league run now stretching to five games, there was more bad news for Kenny Jackett's team as second-placed Barnsley hit four at struggling Gillingham to strengthen their spot in the automatic promotion places.

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Kieffer Moore, Cauley Woodrow (2) and Jacob Brown were on target for the Tykes, who visit Fratton on February 23.

Pompey put the pressure on at Plymouth Picture: Joe Pepler - Digital SouthPompey put the pressure on at Plymouth Picture: Joe Pepler - Digital South
Pompey put the pressure on at Plymouth Picture: Joe Pepler - Digital South

Better news for the Blues was that Sunderland failed to win. They led 1-0 at Oxford through a Jimmy Dunne strike but Jerome Sinclair struck in the 89th minute to leave the Black Cats feeling unlucky. Sunderland remain fourth, two points behind Pompey.

Fifth-placed Charlton were also held - they drew 1-1 at home to Southend, who host Pompey at 12.30pm next Saturday. Stephen Humphrys put Southend 1-0 up on 24 minutes but Ben Reeves rescused a point for the Addicks just before the hour.

With Pompey having 15 games left - one more than Luton but two less than Sunderland - there's plenty of points to play for, but the fact they are now effectively three wins behind Luton is a big worry.