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Pompey suffered a night to
forget in Derby as their impressive run of Championship form was halted by
a 4-0 defeat. Defenders Kane Wilson and Eiran Cashin took advantage of some generous defending to score for the hosts. Ebou Adams’ deflected strike then effectively wrapped things up for the Rams by the break, with an unfortunate Marlon Pack own-goal completing the Blues’ misery. John Mousinho made three changes from the side that drew with Norwich on home soil earlier in the week. Callum Lang and Andre Dozzell both returned after serving one-match bans, while there was also a start for Tom McIntyre. Regan Poole – who was taken off as a precaution against the Canaries – dropped to the bench, as did Paddy Lane and Owen Moxon. Marcus Harness and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing both featured for the home side against their former club. Derby applied plenty of early pressure and when Pompey did have the ball, they were struggling to keep hold of it. And they would have been disappointed with the manner of Derby’s opener, as Wilson was allowed an unchallenged route into the area to convert Mendez-Laing’s low centre. The Blues did begin to look more composed after that and began to pose some threats of their own going forward. But that was all undone on 23 minutes, when Cashin rose above the defence to meet a Kenzo Goudmijn corner. His header bounced down into the turf and then over the head of Lang, who was stationed on the line. What followed was Pompey’s best spell of the half, with a teasing Freddie Potts corner punched clear by Jacob Widell Zetterström. And the keeper then grabbed hold of the ball after Wilson had just managed to get to a Lang delivery before Josh Murphy. But Derby soon increased their lead, with Craig Forsyth collecting on the overlap and picking out Adams, whose effort took a huge deflection off McIntyre to wrong-foot Nicolas Schmid. The visitors tried to hit back and Zetterström had to deal with the danger after Murphy’s cross drifted towards goal. There were still chances at the other end, though, and Schmid was called into action to deal with attempts from Jerry Yates and Mendez-Laing. Half Time: Derby 3 Pompey 0 There was a double change at the break, with Terry Devlin and Matt Ritchie making way for Zak Swanson and Christian Saydee. The latter immediately looked to make a nuisance of himself, as the Blues tried to claw their way back into the contest. Pompey did have an opportunity to reduce their deficit on the hour mark when Zetterström flapped at a Potts corner, but Harness did well to stop McIntyre turning the ball home at the back post. Mousinho made his third switch of the evening on 64 minutes, with Abdoulaye Kamara handed a chance to impress in place of Potts. But despite the Blues having look much more assured since the restart, they quickly found themselves further behind. Harness got free down the right and burst past McIntyre, with his low ball into the mixer inadvertently turned into his own net by Pack. Lane and Elias Sørensen came on, as Mousinho opted to rest the legs of Murphy and Colby Bishop for the closing stages. Pompey almost conceded again late on when a Kamara back-pass went straight to Kayden Jackson, but he could only roll the ball past the post. |
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