Millwall's Lyndon Dykes scores an own goal against Portsmouth at Fratton ParkImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Lyndon Dykes put through his own net to start the Portsmouth comeback

Substitute Thomas Waddingham grabbed a fortunate late winner as Portsmouth recovered from a calamitous error by keeper Nicolas Schmid to beat Millwall and earn a third win in four unbeaten Championship matches.

The Lions led after six minutes of game played in teeming rain when Schmid's awful pass went straight to Jenson Metcalfe, who was able to slot home his first goal for the club with a simple near-post finish.

But another gift of a goal drew the hosts level. Millwall striker Lyndon Dykes scoring at the wrong end when he inadvertently sent a tame Adrian Segecic free-kick past keeper Max Crocombe at the near post.

And fittingly, it was another scrappy goal that settled a match of few chances and little excitement when substitute Tyrese Shade's deflected cross was cleared by Jake Cooper, but slammed into Waddingham and rolled past Crocombe.

Millwall, play-off semi-finalists last season, finished with just one attempt on target - the early goal by Metcalfe - and have only won two of their past 10 league matches.

The half-time statistics told a story, with one goalbound effort and two goals, a fitting way to summarise a 45 minutes which produced plenty of endeavour in awful, increasingly sodden conditions, but very little attacking incident or quality.

Schmid's dreadful error gifted the visitors the lead, with the unfortunate Dykes putting through his own net to ensure parity at the break.

Both sides did try to get the ball down and pass and create, but the goals apart, there was little else to report aside from a teasing Segecic corner that had Crocombe in trouble as he scrambled to clear off his line.

Millwall, looked the more threatening after the interval, getting into numerous promising positions and having several attempts blocked.

Camiel Neghli was also unlucky to steer a well-struck, first-time volley over from a corner.

At the other end, Shade tested Crocombe with a decent low hit from the edge of the box before Pompey grabbed the winner in the final 10 minutes when Waddingham scored another goal ideal for a bloopers montage.

Not that the Australian cared given it was his first goal for the club since his debut in January 2025 after a run of bad luck with injuries.

'The first win we haven't deserved' - reaction

Figure caption,

First win we haven't deserved - Mousinho

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent: "I'm delighted with the three points, but my overriding feeling is this is the first time this season we've got away with one.

"On the level of performance and some of the chances we didn't deserve to win the game, but in terms of having that bit of luck, the work-rate and ability to stick in games I felt we deserved one of those to go our way.

"We were lucky to nick the win off a poor start to the second half and the defending in the first half.

"It was inevitable that in one of these games across this run we wouldn't be at our fluid best, but we stuck in it and did everything else really well."

Figure caption,

Not much in the game - Neil

Millwall boss Alex Neil told BBC Radio London: "I don't think there was a lot in the game. For large spells, I thought we were arguably better. But we found a way to lose the game, in my opinion.

"In the first half, I thought we were good, got the goal, and then I thought the goal we conceded was so poor on our point of view. After we scored for five minutes, we were a little bit more passive for some reason.

"We started the second half really well. The first 20-25 minutes, I thought we were good. And then the game became a little bit stretched. We just made some really naive errors in terms of the second goal in particular.

"Some of the mistakes and errors and naivety that we've shown, we've managed to basically lose the game off the back of that."

Player of the match

Number: 55 M. Dia
Average rating 7.82
Number: 55 M. Dia
Average Rating: 7.82
Number: 20 T. Waddingham
Average Rating: 7.71
Number: 38 E. Adams
Average Rating: 7.54
Number: 24 T. Devlin
Average Rating: 7.50
Number: 5 R. Poole
Average Rating: 7.35
Number: 37 Iyad Mohamed
Average Rating: 7.31
Number: 7 M. Pack
Average Rating: 7.06
Number: 22 Z. Swanson
Average Rating: 7.03
Number: 17 T. Shade
Average Rating: 6.94
Number: 25 R. Kavuma-McQueen
Average Rating: 6.91
Number: 10 A. Segečić
Average Rating: 6.72
Number: 29 Marezi
Average Rating: 6.31
Number: 11 A. Kamara
Average Rating: 6.24
Number: 1 N. Schmid
Average Rating: 4.97

After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.

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