Portsmouth v Sheffield Wednesday: Blues’ 25-year wait for Fratton triumph over Owls continues after dismal display
Pompey fell to their second defeat of the campaign after a 2-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.
Pompey’s 25-year wait for a home victory against Sheffield Wednesday continued on Saturday after a dismal defeat to the Owls.
The Blues’ last triumph over the South Yorkshire outfit came in October 2000 and that wait goes on, with John Mousinho’s men falling to a disappointing 2-0 loss.
An early Barry Bannan free-kick was followed up by a second-half strike by George Brown as Pompey suffered their second defeat of the campaign.
Mousinho went into the contest without key-man Josh Murphy, who was absent from the 20-man squad, while there will be a huge concern over Conor Shaughnessy, who came off injured after the break.
Pompey 0-2 Sheffield Wednesday
It was the Owls who shot out of the box early and called Ben Killip into action within the first six minutes. Svante Ingelsson had a darting header in the box well stopped by the Blues stand-in stopper.
However, there were a few fingers pointed at the keeper for Sheffield Wednesday’s opener. Mousinho’s men gave away a cheap free-kick 20-yards out, which was punished by Bannan, who curled his set-piece past Killip. The Dane was rooted to his line and will have no doubt been disappointed to let that effort in.
Despite going into the contest without a win, Henrik Pedersen’s side continued to control the early knockings of the game, while Pompey were incredibly poor in possession.
Just 22 minutes in, the hosts were lucky not to be two goals behind, with Killip called into action again to deny Bannan, whose curling effort looked to be heading in.
After a slow start, it took the Blues 27 minutes to test Ethan Horvath in the Wednesday net, with John Swift firing an effort from 25 yards, which was well stopped.
Soon after, Connor Ogilvie was able to break into the box and appeared to have a rush of blood by firing an effort wide, despite Colby Bishop and Conor Chaplin waiting to pounce.
That summed Pompey’s first-half performance in a nutshell, with Mousinho ringing the changes at the break as he looked for a reaction.
But it didn’t work and the Blues fell further behind shortly after half-time in controversial style. Conor Shaughnessy pulled up injured chasing the ball down before going down.
Brown was able to win the ball back and capitalise and score the Owls’ second in unfortunate circumstances for the hosts.
Pompey’s best opportunity came from Ogilvie on the hour mark, who had a great chance to pull a goal back but was denied from close range by Horvath.
As Mousinho’s troops tried to work their way back into the contest, Bishop had two chances in a minute, first being denied on the line before Horvath came to the rescue to deny another great chance.
Pedersen’s men dealt with everything the hosts threw at them late, with Hayden Matthews also denied off the line in the dying stages.
But that’s as good as it got for the Blues, who fell to their second defeat of the campaign, while it represents Wednesday’s first league win of the season.
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