Credit: Imago]

Dan Godfrey

Thu 24 April 2025 9:33, UK

Callum Lang put a smile on 20,000 faces in Portsmouth when he returned to the pitch for his Fratton Park cameo against Watford on Easter Monday.

It seemed fitting that the 10-goal forward, plagued by a hamstring injury for the final third of the campaign, was able to mark his comeback on the day Pompey secured Championship survival in front of a packed-out PO4 crowd.

Lang entered the fray alongside Conor Shaughnessy – a highly-esteemed star ravaged by injuries all season – for the final embers of a memorable afternoon on Portsea.

Lang ‘fuming’ with teammate after what’s happened lately

Lang made his return having not played since his injury at Oxford United on 15 February. Until then, he had been integral to the Portsmouth survival bid.

His determined performances, work ethic and ‘that’ day at Fratton when he smashed four past promotion-hunting Coventry City – they all added up to create a vital Championship player for John Mousinho.

Portsmouth hosted their annual awards night at Fratton Park on Wednesday (23 April), with Lang making a speech about Colby Bishop – whose 11th goal of the season won the game against Watford, and also took him beyond Lang as the Blues’ leading scorer.

The former Wigan Athletic ace joked that he was “fuming” with Bishop, revealing the duo had a bet at the start of the season on who would outscore the other, and then credited the story of the striker’s campaign.

“It’s a nice feeling as always playing at Fratton, so it’s really good to be back,” Lang began.

“I’m fuming with Colby because he’s overtaken me in the goalscoring. He scored and I didn’t, so I’m absolutely fuming with him. We had a little bet at the start of the season and now he’s one up.

“I’ll have to ask the gaffer now if I can start against Sheffield Wednesday – I’m not sure I’m ready. To be fair to Colby, if anyone’s going to top the goalscoring it’s nice for it to be him. He’s done amazingly and we’ve seen him since he came out of his surgery.”

Bishop underwent his major heart operation in late July, ruling him out for an unconfirmed period expecting to last at least half the season.

However, Pompey’s frontman returned in early November, scored in his first game back at Fratton, and has gone on to play a significant part in keeping the Blues in the second tier.

Portsmouth likely to rotate v Sheffield Wednesday

Portsmouth will take no risks at Hillsborough on Saturday as they take on Danny Rohl’s Owls (26 April).

With neither side having anything competitive in the Championship left to play for, Mousinho will not risk any further injuries to the likes of Lang nor Shaughnessy.

It will be interesting to see which players are given a chance in the season’s penultimate game, before Hull City visit Fratton on the final day (3 May).