Kenny Jackett said before this game Pompey owed their fans a home victory - and although he was not there to see it. he'd have been delighted to see they'd paid their debt.
Kal Naismith's early touch-in following a corner and two typical Brett Pitman finishes won it for the Blues on a day when Oxford were left to rue Alex Mowatt's mad minute when he missed a penalty then lashed out at Nathan Thompson and got himself sent off.
It was 1-0 when that happened and Oxford had been putting Pompey under not a little pressure, but the sending off lifted the Blues and Pitman finished off a reeling Oxford.
The result puts Pompey back up to eighth and only two points behind sixth-placed Peterborough, with an Easter weekend featuring games with Walsall and wigan looking pivotal in deciding whether they will be in contention for the play-offs come the final few weeks.
With Jackett absent because of a family illness and Joe Gallen in charge, the Blues had the perfect start in the fifth minute when Dion Donohue's corner was headed back across goal by Matt Clarke and Naismith touched it in with his knee from a couple of yards.
For a while it looked like Pompey could have the game won in the first half with Jamal Lowe, Connor Ronan and Naismith looking threatening but gradually Oxford came into it and they had the better of the second quarter of the game.
Malachi Napa's curling shot was touched around the post by Luke McGee then Pitman was on the line to clear in a scramble following a corner.
Just after the hour Oxford were awarded a penalty when Clarke was judged to have held Rob Dickie at a corner but Mowatt struck McGee's left-hand post and as the ball flew out to safety, Mowatt found Thompson telling him what he thought and slapped him. Thompson went down and Mowatt went off, with McGee also, puzzlingly, shown a yellow in the process.
After that only one team was going to win it. The miss took the wind out of Oxford's sails and Lowe and Pitman teamed up to put Pompey's first home win since December in the bag.
First a long cross by Lowe from the right was fired in by Pitman - then Lowe ran through and looked like scoring himself before complicating things but managing to square for Pompey's top scorer to sidefoot in his 19th of the season.
The only question after that was whether Pompey could manage a fourth - they couldn't but the fans went home happy at having seen old rivals Oxford beaten in the Blues' joint biggest home win of the season.
| Advertisement |
|
|
Click here to sign up for an account and reserve your username! You can then post on the Forum and add your comments to articles