Late Portsmouth Goal Downs Slumping Middlesbrough

In a thrilling finale, Portsmouth secured a crucial victory over Middlesbrough with a stoppage-time goal, boosting their Championship survival hopes and dealing a significant blow to Boro's fading automatic promotion bid. The visitors struggled to find the net until the dying seconds, ending an eight-game winless streak for John Mousinho's side. Middlesbrough, now without a win in six games, fell three points behind second-placed Ipswich, who have two games in hand. Portsmouth's winner, scored by Conor Chaplin, kept them a point and a place above the relegation zone. Despite dominating possession, Boro managed only four goals in their last six games, with two coming in a draw against Swansea. The home side started strongly, with Alan Browne forcing a good early save from Nicolas Schmid. However, for all their dominance, Boro struggled to create meaningful chances, with their only effort on target in the first half being Dael Fry's close-range header saved by Schmid. In the second half, Boro had a glorious chance to break the deadlock, but Tommy Conway opted to pass rather than shoot, and his attempt was intercepted. Portsmouth launched a rare attack, and Terry Devlin picked out Colby Bishop, but the striker's audacious flick went wide. In added time, Boro nearly forced a breakthrough, but Sontje Hansen's shot was cleared off the line by Andre Dozzell. Portsmouth then won a corner, and Fry's headed clearance reached Dozzell, whose first-time strike deflected in off his teammate. Middlesbrough's Kim Hellberg expressed disappointment with the performance, calling it 'poor' and 'boring.' Portsmouth's John Mousinho hailed the result as 'amazing' and acknowledged that his team got lucky, something they had been lacking this season.