Bowat the hero as Portsmouth move giant step closer to Championship survival against Leicester City
Ibane Bowat was the survival showdown hero as his winner moved Pompey to the cusp of Championship survival.
Bowat forced home Adrian Segecic’s wicked second-half corner to give the Blues a 1-0 win over Leicester City - sending the Foxes to the brink of relegation in the process.
The win takes John Mousinho’s side seven points clear of the drop zone with three games remaining - as three huge wins in eight days have fans believing their side can maintain their second-tier status.
Leicester, for their part, lacked the urgency their desperate situation required and their fans were rightly left fuming at a spinless showing with the stakes so high.
Pompey’s plans were wrecked inside the first 15 minutes, as they were forced into two early changes - with both looking like hamstring issues.
First Keshi Anderson was forced off with Adrian Segecic replacing the winger. Then Terry Devlin left the pitch in tears, after going down with no one in attendance. He was replaced by Ibane Bowat, with the fear it’s now season over for both men.
Amid the changes there was a penalty appeal for Leicester as Patson Daka went to ground as Conor Shaughnessy cleared. Ref Gavin Ward.
The stop-start nature of the game continued as play was briefly stopped as a supporter took a low to the face as the ball was cleared into the front row of the North Stand.
A Leicester spell of pressure resulted in little goal threat before a Segecic shot was blocked. Bishop then couldn’t connect with the ball at the near post from a Williams cross.
Bobby de Cordova Reid angled a relatively tame angled shot at Nico Schmid, with the visitors lacking the intensity their perilous position requires.
The game’s best chance arrived two minutes after the restart, as Conor Chaplin’s near post thump was pushed away by Asmir Begovic from Milli Alli’s cross.
Hamza Choudhury then hit his shot into the side-netting from a long Leicster throw.
There was a huge chance for Alli in the 58th minute when the winger was played clean through by Bishop. The Luton man elected to go around Begovic though and overran the ball out of play.
Then Segecic was off balance when played through by Bishop as Pompey upped the ante.
The Blues were knocking the door and the goal duly arrived with 27 minutes - thanks to another wicked Segecic corner. It was Bowat who got the final touch via his leg as he attacked the ball at the far post to lift the roof off Fratton.
There was a warning for Pompey with 18 minutes left as Schmid saved superbly from Daka’s header. Then Poole superbly blocked Jannik Vestergaard’s shot with Leicester players lining up in the box.
Schmid then superbly charged from his box and tackled Daka, who was clean through after a short backpass from Poole.
Pompey saw the game out through five minutes of stoppage time to get the survival party started on a glorious afternoon at PO4.