Portsmouth promotion hopes given huge lift as Bolton Wanderers suffer big injury blow with they and Derby County BOTH faltering

Pompey’s promotion hopes were handed a massive lift last night as key promotion rivals Bolton and Derby County BOTH lost.

Derby went down to a 2-1 home loss to Charlton Athletic, as they gave up a first-half lead to Nathan Jones’ side at Pride Park.

And Bolton fell to a 1-0 derby reverse against Wigan at the DW Stadium, to keep John Mousinho’s side seven points clear at the top of League One.

Charlton were good value for their win over Paul Warne’s side, as they followed up draws against Bolton and Pompey with a maximum on the road.

Alfie May’s 65th-minute penalty cancelled out Eirin Cashin’s first-half header, before Karoy Anderson rifled in the winner 10 minutes from time after Ebou Adams had conceded possession to sub Chuks Aneke.

Derby could have no complaint at the outcome with Aneke also hitting the post for the Addicks, but it was a different story for Ian Evatt’s side who dominated for long periods against the Latics.

Eoin Toal went close with a spectacular 35-yard drive in the first half and headed over, with keeper Sam Tickle also making good saves before sub Stephen Humphrys grabbed the only goal of the game in the 69th minute.

To compound Bolton’s misery they look to have lost attacker Carlos Mendes Gomes for the season, after he looked to have ruptured his Achilles in the 19th minute.

Wanderers boss Ian Evatt confirmed the news after the game, as he refused to give up the promotion fight with 12 games still to go.

He told the Bolton News: It looks like he (Mendes Gomes) has ruptured his Achilles, which is a really bad injury.

'It is another thing that is going against us at the moment but we can’t do anything about it Carlos is in great form and it is really disappointing for him.

‘I thought it was the best we have played for a long time, to be honest, and I am baffled as to how we lost the game. We controlled it, it was one team trying to win and the other one trying to survive.

‘Football, as I have said before, is a really harsh industry. And I am the first one to call out the players and yesterday we had a really big meeting about how we’d performed on Saturday. It was disappointing and regardless of the refereeing decision and red card we probably got what we deserved. Tonight we didn’t get what we deserved.

‘We are still fighting to get promoted out of this division and there are 12 big games left to make that happen.’

Warne gave a fair assessment of his team’s loss, after a first half in which there wasn’t a great deal between the sides before Charlton started to create openings and keeper Joe Wildsmith took out Daniel Kanu for the visitor's penalty.

He told Derbyshire Live: ‘I thought our play was really good without creating clear-cut openings. In the second half we didn't start as well obviously.

‘Their game plan was just to turn us, to get second balls but there is a massive turning point. Joe has held his hands up. It's a mistake but giving an away team a goal and in a game where they weren't really creating anything.

‘That's massively disappointing and we make a mistake in the middle of the pitch. We then try to get back into the game but we didn't have enough. That's the honest truth.

‘It's really disappointing because with so few games left, we have to see games out. We need to manage them better and I just didn't think I had enough great performances to justify the three points.’