Late Pompey Goal Sinks Struggling Middlesbrough

In a dramatic turn of events, Portsmouth scored the only goal of the game seven minutes into stoppage time, giving their Championship survival hopes a significant boost and dealing a major blow to Middlesbrough's fading automatic promotion aspirations. The visitors, who didn't have a shot on target until the final seconds, saw their eight-game winless run come to an end. Middlesbrough, now winless in six games, are three points behind second-placed Ipswich, who have two games in hand. Portsmouth, who looked set to fall into the relegation zone, were saved by the late winner, which keeps them a point and a place above the bottom three. Despite dominating the ball, Middlesbrough struggled to create meaningful openings, managing only 20 shots compared to Portsmouth's three. The home side's lack of efficiency in front of goal was evident, with only four goals scored in their last six games. Portsmouth's manager, John Mousinho, praised his team's resilience, saying, 'It's an amazing result at this stage of the season. We've come here to hopefully win the game, and we've managed to do that in those circumstances, which was different to what we've been doing in recent weeks.' Middlesbrough's manager, Kim Hellberg, expressed disappointment with his team's performance, stating, 'I'm disappointed, devastated. The performance was poor, actually. First half was terrible. It was like watching paint dry.'