Portsmouth 2-1 Coventry City

[dutchman]

Tony Mowbray's men suffered a defeat in Havant and Waterlooville as Portsmouth provided reality check



Coventry City’s long trip south ended in defeat against League Two opposition but provided Tony Mowbray with the consolation prize of a glorious goal from George Thomas.

Mowbray won’t have learned too much new about his squad but while his priority remains fresh attacking options, he can’t help but have been impressed by Thomas’s flash of quality.

Portsmouth, bizarrely, fielded four players who, although named on the team-sheet, weren’t wearing numbers, but they certainly seemed to know who was who as they made a high-energy start to grab the lead inside four minutes.

City failed to deal with a routine right-wing corner and when Burge blocked Clarke’s effort the ball fell kindly for Chaplin to side-foot into the unprotected net.

Jones had to react sharply to field Thomas’s 20-yard volley as Maddison and O’Brien regularly swapped wings in the search for attacking impetus, but the home side looked sharper all round for the first quarter of the game.

As City perked up, Vincelot crowned an impressive run with a fierce shot that deflected wide off Atangana and a slick combination between Maddison and Thomas then had the Portsmouth defence at full stretch.

But while Thomas showed impressive energy and invention up front, he found it difficult to make an impact against Pompey’s big centre-halves.

And bang on half-time Portsmouth made it 2-0, ironically on the counter-attack from one of City’s best moves, as Naismith’s long diagonal found Evans striding clear down the inside-right channel to slide a cool shot past the exposed Burge.

City sent on Portuguese triallist Ruben Lameiras for the second half and made a much brighter start.

Thomas cleverly created the space for a sharp angled shot that brought the best out of keeper Jones and, not to be denied, the young striker conjured up a brilliant goal in the 53rd minute – brilliantly controlling the ball as Johnson’s long-range punt embarrassed Clarke and keeping his cool to dink an exquisitely-judged volley over Jones.

Burge denied Evans with a reflex save before a rash of substitutions at both ends, Mowbray sending on rookie midfielders Ivor Lawton and Ben Stevenson for O’Brien and Vincelot while former Sky Blues skipper Michael Doyle was one of the Pompey replacements.

City seemed to adjust quicker than their hosts, Swanson first teeing up a Lameiras shot that was blocked for a corner and, from the flag-kick, picking out Martin for a far-post header that smacked against the bar.

But further shuffles disrupted that flow and as the gloom descended on Westleigh Park the game quietly petered out.