![\"football\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/skysports-portsmouth-watford_7038460.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAdrian Segecic made sure Watford’s dismal away form continued as his 79th-minute equaliser handed Portsmouth a 2-2 draw at Fratton Park.<\/p>\n
The Hornets looked to be ending their nine-match winless streak on the road after Rocco Vata had turned around Yang Min-hyeok’s early strike with a goal and an assist.<\/p>\n
But Segecic jumped off the bench to beat Egil Selvik at his near post to share the points and keep some pressure on Watford boss Paulo Pezzolano.<\/p>\n
South Korean Yang hung around in the middle for Marlon Pack’s long throw to be abysmally defended by the visitors and land at his feet to stroke home his first Pompey goal in the fifth minute.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yang Min-Hyeok fires Portsmouth into an early lead against Watford at Fratton Park.<\/p>\n
Watford responded quickly with a long throw of their own, but no one gambled in the middle to tap in after Vivaldo Semedo had poked past the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n
The first-half possession stats were even, but Pompey were the more dangerous in the attacking third.<\/p>\n
Marlon Pack’s piledriver caused problems for Selvik – with the shot initially too hot to handle for the Hornets keeper before he recovered safely.<\/p>\n
A scintillating counter attack down the right saw Conor Chaplin and Jordan Williams team up before Yang was only denied in the middle by an acrobatic save by Selvik.<\/p>\n
Watford’s body language became increasingly unhappy and exploded when 19-year-old forward Nestory Irankunda was hooked in the 35th minute.<\/p>\n
Upon reaching the bench, he punched his seat, threw a water bottle at the floor before storming down the tunnel – all while the 1,200 travelling fans chanted “you don’t know what you’re doing” at Pezzolano.<\/p>\n
But the hosts couldn’t make the most of their opponents’ haplessness as Andre Dozzell blasted across the face of goal, Yang dragged wide and Colby Bishop headed a free-kick over.<\/p>\n
Pezzolano took a second dip at his bench at half-time with a double substitution, but it was Irankunda’s replacement Vata who turned the scoreline around.<\/p>\n
Just 27 seconds into the second half, the Irishman surged down the left flank before pulling back to Imran Louza to poke his side level.<\/p>\n
Then 10 minutes later, Moussa Sissoko – who had been moved into an advanced role after an anonymous opening 45 minutes – broke down the right. His shot was saved but only into the path of Vata to unwittingly divert in.<\/p>\n
Pezzolano celebrated with a run down the touchline, vindicated with his half-time alterations.<\/p>\n
Vata attempted to add the gloss on his second-half domination by chipping Josef Bursik from the halfway line, but was off target. Jeremy Ngakia also fired over as Watford looked to kill things off.<\/p>\n
But Portsmouth saved a point in the 79th minute when Segecic slammed past Selvik at his near post as Watford’s 229-day wait for an away triumph was extended, despite Vata forcing a stoppage-time save out of Bursik.<\/p>\n
The managers<\/p>\n
Portsmouth’s John Mousinho:<\/p>\n
“It feels like two points dropped because of the positivity of the performance, particularly in the first half.<\/p>\n
“We look at some of these games where if Watford slice us apart with good play then we think ‘that is the Championship’ but the two goals we conceded were so poor.<\/p>\n
“They feel like the two worst ones of the season, especially 30 seconds into the second half having played so well for 45 minutes.<\/p>\n
“I am pleased we got back into the game and kept going. There are plenty of positives but ultimately we need to be better from the kick-off.<\/p>\n
“It is crucial that we have the firepower to come off the bench. It is encouraging to see Adrian come off the bench and get his goal.”<\/p>\n
Watford’s Paulo Pezzolano: <\/p>\n
“The game was two different parts completely. The first part we were a little bit too stretched on the pitch, but in the second part we were more compact and showed better face.<\/p>\n
“The good news is that the team is showing good character, determination and courage to turn the games around.<\/p>\n
“We have seen slow starts since last year but luckily in a moment in the game the team turns things around. We need to find out the root reason and fix it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Adrian Segecic made sure Watford’s dismal away form continued as his 79th-minute equaliser handed Portsmouth a 2-2 draw…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-184706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}