Portsmouth 0-0 Norwich City: Goalless at Fratton Park as Pompey climb out of bottom three

Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Portsmouth and Norwich City at Fratton Park on Tuesday night; John Mousinho's Pompey and the Canaries play out a scrappy goalless draw.

Tuesday 10 December 2024 23:07, UK

Portsmouth escaped the Championship relegation zone for the first time since August as they drew 0-0 with Norwich at Fratton Park.

Pompey and the Canaries, who had netted a league-high 35 times, had scored 18 goals between them in their last three fixtures but the expected goal-fest never arrived.

The home side have put together a four-match unbeaten run, including back-to-back clean sheets, after only one victory in their opening 14 matches and looked the likelier to score.

Norwich lost captain Kenny McLean two hours before kick-off as he was handed a four-match ban for a previously unpunished elbow against QPR at the weekend.

The first half an hour saw plenty of quick passing and all-round quality but few magical chances.

The only shot on target came in the fourth minute as Borja Sainz's wicked delivery was diverted goal-bound by Emi Marcondes but straight at goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid.

It was Pompey who caused the bigger problems with a mix of high-pressing and long balls but they couldn't test City stopper Angus Gunn.

Freddie Potts' direct inswinging corner needed a defender on the line before Paddy Lane put his laces through a shot from 20 yards but it sailed over the crossbar.

The first-half quality ended when Josh Murphy, against the club which reared him, flashed a shot just wide in the 26th minute.

The other 15 minutes were scrappy, bitty, low-quality stuff, best illustrated by the five yellow cards referee Andrew Kitchen brandished for various snide incidents.

However, Schmid was forced into a full-length save at his near post after Sainz's attempted pass bounced off Terry Devlin and almost caught out the goalkeeper.

Sainz, the leading goalscorer in the top four tiers, had his first big chance four minutes after the restart when he picked up on a long ball forward but his low effort lacked power - as did his longer-range shot a minute later.

Connor Ogilvie hooked the ball into the net but Kitchen had already blown for a foul on Gunn before Lane unsuccessfully tried his luck from range.

Colby Bishop bounced a header agonisingly wide, Onel Hernandez fired straight at Schmid and Lane failed to convert from a pullback as there wasn't a lack of openings to break the deadlock.

Zak Swanson had the last chance but his back-post header was deflected wide in stoppage time.

The managers

Portsmouth's John Mousinho:

"It was a really hard-fought point.

"We are delighted with the performance but slightly disappointed with the result as I think we expected to win the game. But if you can't win, don't lose.

"We were superb from start to finish. It was 97 minutes of hard graft.

"It is psychologically a boost to get out the relegation zone but it is a bigger boost to put in back-to-back performances together.

"Hopefully, the players now know they belong at this level and have adjusted but we need to push on."

Norwich's Johannes Hoff Thorup:

"The short story is the point is okay with us. The attitude and character from the boys was outstanding and what we needed after the defeat to QPR.

"Ideally in the future we have to be better and we need to find the balance between a hard fight and earning the right to play and find the moments to dominate.

"We've been talking about risk reward and today there was low risk so there wasn't much reward.

"It was important to keep a clean sheet and important to prove to ourselves we can put on a fight but in the future we have big ambitions."