Portsmouth player ratings vs West Brom – Regan Poole momentous, teammate gets 5/10
Portsmouth claimed a hard-fought point against West Bromwich Albion at The Hawthorns as they drew 1-1 on Saturday.
West Brom took the lead in the first half thanks to a long-range strike from Mikey Johnston.
However, Colby Bishop pulled them level early in the second half, heading home a pinpoint cross from Josh Murphy.
Portsmouth were arguably second-best, but they defended bravely to claim a draw against a talented West Brom side who had won both of their opening Championship games.
Regan Poole momentous for Portsmouth at The Hawthorns
Regan Poole partnered Conor Shaughnessy in the centre of defence for Portsmouth once again at The Hawthorns.
These two didn’t play one game together for the whole of last season due to both Portsmouth defenders suffering lengthy injury absences.
Pompey are so much more solid when these two are both fit, and they showed that at The Hawthorns on Saturday.
Poole made many last-ditch blocks and challenges to keep West Brom at bay. He picked up a yellow card and arguably deserved another in the second half, but he won’t care about that now.
Josh Knight signed for Portsmouth earlier in the week, but it’s difficult to see how Shaughnessy or Poole can be ousted from the team.
Florian Bianchini could have been difference-maker
Florian Bianchini started the match on the right wing, replacing an injured Callum Lang.
The Italian would have wanted to cement his place as the first choice in that position, at least while Lang is unavailable.
He showed some nice touches in the first half, and had a chance to open the scoring when he was put through by Adrian Segecic after 20 minutes.
West Brom keeper Josh Griffiths came out to greet Bianchini and got a hand to his dinked effort.
That was the clearest chance of the game, and it could have been a more comfortable game for Pompey had he converted it.
Portsmouth player ratings
Schmid – 6
Swanson – 6
Poole – 8
Shaughnessy – 7
Ogilvie – 6
Dozzell – 6
Swift – 6
Bianchini – 6
Segecic – 6
Murphy – 7
Bishop – 7
Substitutes
Le Roux (55′ for Swift) – 6
Waddingham (55′ for Bianchini) – 5
Williams (75′ for Swanson) – 6
Devlin (75′ for Bishop) – 5
Kosznovszky (84′ for Segecic) – 5
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