Portsmouth moved out of the Championship relegation places after a 1-1 draw at Watford, whose hopes of regaining a play-off place at the other end of the table were thwarted.
Adrian Segecic put Portsmouth ahead in the 73rd minute but Watford levelled through substitute Mamadou Doumbia six minutes later.
The first chance was Portsmouth’s but new recruit Ebou Adams, making his full debut, saw his 20-yard shot blocked by a defender.
Millenic Alli, another fresh face at Fratton Park, was the next Pompey man to have a go from distance after Watford surrendered possession cheaply and the deflection of his shot began a series of corners that ended with Conor Chaplin hooking wide.
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Portsmouth goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid makes an error for Mamadou Doumbia’s equalising goal.
It took Watford 20 minutes to retaliate through a drive from Giorgi Chakvetadve, which was also deflected behind to begin a flurry of corners. Striker Luca Kjerrumgaard was off target with the hosts’ next opportunity four minutes later.
Portsmouth appealed in vain for handball from a corner that saw Jeremy Ngakia jump with arms raised beyond the back post before Othmane Maamma, played in on the right of the box by Chakvetadve, fired wastefully into the side-netting at the other end.
Watford captain Imran Louza tried his luck from range soon after but the Morocco midfielder’s drive was too high and the half ended with the Hornets giving the ball away in their own half again and Chaplin fizzing a shot wide.
Watford made two changes for the second period, with Mamadou Doumbia and Kevin Keben coming on. Portsmouth, hard hit by injuries, sent on fresh legs in Jordan Williams.
The second period plodded on although Alli was close to latching on to a back-pass that saw Watford goalkeeper Egil Selvik get there first.
Segecic cut in from the right to test Selvik from the edge of the box before Maamma was hurt and had to be helped off the pitch.
Watford upped their tempo but Kjerrumgaard saw a fierce drive diverted away by a defender and Marc Bola saw his low shot fly straight to goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid.
Segecic broke the deadlock in the 73rd minute when Chaplin received Alli’s pass in the box and swivelled to square the ball for the Australian to slot home his sixth goal of the season.
The lead lasted only six minutes however when Doumbia profited from an error by goalkeeper Schmid, who dropped Louza’s delivery into the box. That allowed Kjerrumgaard to poke the lose ball to the substitute who slotted past a couple of defenders.
The managers
Watford’s Javi Gracia:
“I’m very upset and disappointed not just because of the result but the way we performed from the first minutes.
“After two bad results in the FA Cup and in our last home game I expected a reaction.
“I don’t recognise my team. At other times I’ve told you that we were going the right way and working well. Now it is not the right way. It’s the wrong way.
“Our supporters could see we were playing too much in our own half and never trying to attack the spaces. That is not the attitude.
“We are competing against teams with more experience and who are more organised. We can’t get the results we expect playing like this.”
Portsmouth’s John Mousinho:
“I thought the performance was superb for the full 90 minutes, the only disappointment was that we didn’t win it. We deserved to go ahead so conceding the goal in the manner we did was a disappointment
“It is just an error. We have made plenty of poor decisions and been defensively poor at times this season and deserved to concede goals.
“I didn’t think we deserved to concede tonight and one thing is for sure – Nico is going to help us out and save us this season far more times than he makes errors.
“It is very rare – almost a collector’s item for him to do that – so we take it and move on because he has been superb.
“He just went up in difficult conditions and dropped the ball. Maybe he took his eye of it for a second. It is one of those things, all of the players out there make mistakes, it is just amplified when you are the goalkeeper.”
