Pompey's winning run came to a juddering halt when a single superb goal by the hosts was enough to settle their visit to Accrington's Crown Ground.

Paddy Lacey's sweetly-hit 30-yard shot was out of keeping with the rest of a forgettable game and left Paul Cook's team reflecting on their first defeat in just over a month.

There was a surprise recall for Kyle Bennett, as Milan Lalkovic dropped to the bench, while Michael Smith got the nod over Conor Chaplin to replace Curtis Main up front.

Gary Roberts spurned an early chance to put Pompey ahead when he shot wide from close range after Carl Baker's cross found him, while at the other end David Forde had to deal with only a couple of hopeful attempts from Stanley.

Christian Burgess headed an Accrington free kick against his own post but 0-0 was not an unfair scoreline after a first half of huff, puff but not much quality.

Stanley got what would prove to be the winner seven minutes into the second half when Lacey picked up a loose ball and found the top corner, with Forde unable to do anything about it.

Chaplin and Kal Naismith came on and they were followed into the action by Lalkovic as Pompey tried to rescue a point.

Inevitably Pompey did most of the attacking in the final 15 or 20 minutes and both Bennett and Enda Stevens went close to unlocking the Stanley backline.

But it was not Pompey's day and the defeat saw them fall to fifth. Pompey: Forde; Evans, T.Davies, Burgess, Stevens; Rose (Chaplin 63), Doyle (c); Baker (Naismith 67), Roberts (Lalkovic 70), Bennett; Smith. Subs not used: O’Brien, Clarke, Linganzi, Hunt

Referee: Mark Haywood

Attendance: 2,461 (806 Pompey fans)

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