Portsmouth 2-2 Derby County: Rob Atkinson redeems himself at the death

By Alex Smith

PORTSMOUTH 2

Atkinson 71, 90+1

DERBY COUNTY 2

Yates 70, Atkinson 75 (og)

Portsmouth head coach John Mousinho hailed Rob Atkinson for going above and beyond to secure a draw with Championship relegation rivals Derby County.

The centre-back scored a bizarre ‘hat-trick’ – made up of an own-goal and two ‘proper’ goals – as Pompey came from behind twice to take a 91st-minute point.

The Bristol City loanee has spent two years on the sidelines with an ACL injury and had missed Pompey’s past seven fixtures with a calf injury.

But Atkinson returned to the side with a bang, receiving high praise from the Portsmouth boss.

He left everything out there – Mousinho

Mousinho said: “Rob is a player who has two years of serious injuries at Bristol City.

“We have managed him back into the fold since he arrived.

“There aren’t too many players with five games left of their loan who would have risked what Rob risked.

“He’s going to go back to Bristol City after his loan, but he played like he had a four-year contract with us.

“I am pleased we have characters like him.

“He was set to play an hour, he went beyond that and left everything out there.”

“The most important thing today was not to lose,” added Mousinho.

“We would like to have more of a gap to the drop zone, but it could have been worse and we could have been looking at a different picture, so it was important for us to come back and draw.”

COMMITMENT: Derby’s Ebou Adams, right, and Portsmouth’s Isaac Hayden battle it out
PICTURES: Alamy

Match action

Pompey could have opened the scoring in the seventh minute.

Matt Ritchie found himself behind the Derby defence but was taken out by Jacob Widell Zetterstrom.

Zetterstrom escaped with a yellow but Pompey were awarded a penalty.

Colby Bishop stepped up but his strike was saved.

The ball bounced from one end to the other as things went from frenetic to frantic.

Craig Forsyth blazed over the bar for the Rams after being teed up by Matt Clarke.

Marcus Harness then attempted an in-swinger which caught Nicolas Schmid out and came back off the bar and post.

At the other end, Ritchie clipped a free-kick onto the roof of the goal before Christian Saydee bulldozed his way into the box before his low piledriver was kept out.

Harness was lively and created the greatest moments of quality.

He had a point-blank header caught by Schmid, before firing over after a one-two with Jerry Yates.

If anything the second half was more bonkers, as it added goals to the mix.

Forsyth twice forced saves out of Schmid and Josh Murphy blasted into the side-netting, before three goals in five minutes.

Derby struck first as Forsyth pinged a cross from the left for Yates to head in.

But 96 seconds later Pompey were level as Murphy’s corner was diverted in by Atkinson.

Yates managed to head wide of an open goal but minutes later Derby had re-taken the lead when substitute Kayden Jackson drove down the left and smashed a low cross into the middle which Atkinson could only slice into his own goal.

The points were shared when Schmid’s long ball found the head of Atkinson.

Star Man – Rob Atkinson (Portsmouth)

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