Magic Man at the double as spellbinding Portsmouth start continues against Port Vale

The Magic Man produced a two-goal salvo in five second-half minutes to make it 210 days since the Blues last suffered defeat in the third tier.

John Mousinho’s side weren’t at the races in the first half, but stepped things up after the break to send the majority of the 17,837 crowd home happy.

And that showed another side from this Blues squad, as they eked out three points with injuries and suspensions to contend with.

Pompey made three changes from the side who defeated Wycombe in mid week, as Ben Stevenson, Sean Raggett and Christian Saydee replaced Alex Robertson, Regan Poole and Tino Anjorin.

The Blues were lucky to not go in behind at the break.

Vale first went close when Funso Ojo cracked the post from 20 yards in the fifth minute, before Jack Sparkes put a 25-yard free-kick not too far wide.

Paddy Lane then missed a great chance in the 15th minute as he put a free header wide from another raking Sparkes delivery.

Pompey should have been behind three minutes later as Raggett backed off James Plant but the winger fired wide from eight yards out.

The visitors then saw Ben Garrity head over 11 minutes before the break with Mousinho having issues to address at the interval.

Two goals in five minutes after the restart totally changed the tide in Pompey’s favour.

And it was that man Bishop who did the damage, first turning in Rafferty’s shot in the 53rd minute from Sparkes’ ball in.

The the Magic Man was at it again five minutes later as Kofi Balmer handled Abu Kamara’s shot and the spot-kick dispatched with aplomb.

Raggett then had two good chances to get on the scoresheet, with Garrity first clearing his header off the line and Ripley then smothering a very presentable header from close range.

Kusini Yengi’s late introduction lifted the home crowd through a comfortable seven minutes of stoppage time as, Pompey collected another decent three points.