Portsmouth 3-0 Bristol City: Pompey claim emphatic win at Fratton Park

Colby Bishop scored one and set up another as Portsmouth comfortably beat Bristol City 3-0 to rise off the bottom of the Championship.

Bishop, who returned from open heart surgery a month ago, opened the scoring in the first half, before slipping in Josh Murphy after the break.

Callum Lang put a cherry on top of the result with a close-range finish as Pompey secured their third win of the season and only a second victory in their last 13 attempts against the Robins.

Pompey had not played a home game in almost a month due to the international break and a floodlight failure against Millwall.

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But it felt like they had not been away as Matt Ritchie tested Max O'Leary with a 25-yard free-kick in the second minute, before the winger looped a header over the crossbar.

Their best early chance fell to centre-back Regan Poole, who after a defensive mix-up from a corner, poked goal-bound from inside the six-yard box, only for O'Leary to sensationally claw the ball off the line.

Pompey's 20th-minute lead was deserved, but came with a helping hand from O'Leary, Jason Knight and Zak Vyner.

The defensive trio stumbled to allow Murphy to nip in and shuffle the ball to Bishop. The striker's first shot was well saved but he made no mistake with the follow-up.

The hosts could not maintain their attacking threat, albeit with Murphy seeing a cross deflected just wide and Bishop flicking a header off target, as City - who were shooting towards Storm Darragh - tried to mount a comeback as half-time approached.

Max Bird curled wide with a warning shot, before the central midfielder slipped Anis Mehmedi through, with the Albania international testing Nicolas Schmid with a powerful low shot on the angle.

Portsmouth should have doubled their lead five minutes into the second half as Lang pinched the ball off Rob Dickie and found himself clean through, but his shot straight at O'Leary lacked composure.

They did extend their advantage in the 62nd minute as Lang was too strong for Knight in midfield before Bishop slid Murphy in behind to finish under O'Leary.

Yu Hirakawa bent an effort just over the crossbar but the home side made the points safe in the 71st minute through Lang.

Murphy fired a tantalising ball across the face of goal and - after no defender dared touch it on the stretch - Lang was waiting at the back post to tap in.

Pompey had their hearts in their mouth when Sinclair Armstrong strode through in search of a consolation, but he thumped his effort straight at Schmid.

After the long delay for Fratton Park action, it meant back-to-back home wins and a first clean sheet in nine attempts for Portsmouth, even with head coach John Mousinho banned from the touchline as he watched from the camera gantry.

The managers

Portsmouth's assistant head coach Jon Harley:

"Colby's made one and scored and is a constant threat. He's a player you would hate to play against but if you have him on your team, it is like having a mountain.

"You are always backing him to score a goal or pop up with something. It has been huge to have him back as he was a big miss. Now he is back, it is important to capitalise on that.

"The last couple of years he has scored a hell of a lot of goals, he almost guarantees you goals.

"He has been really impactful for the team."

Bristol City's Liam Manning:

"We were second best in most things; duels, second balls, quality on the ball, finishing, defending the box - so many areas.

"That has been unlike us. I will defend the lads if I think they will perform to a level but we didn't hit that level today.

"Irrespective of results, the lads had hit a really consistent run of games so it was frustrating and disappointing.

"I like that the players in the dressing room took accountability.

"None of the lads intentionally go out and play like they did today, what we have to make sure is that it doesn't happen very often.

"Overall, we didn't deserve anything from the game. We have to go away and suck it up and learn from it."

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