Portsmouth 1 Coventry 2: Neil Allen's verdict - Blues toppled by impressive leaders amid penalty controversy

Having inflicted two top-of-the-table shocks in recent weeks, it was a case of third time unlucky for John Mousinho’s men against the current leaders.

Pompey can point to the denial of a stone-wall first-half penalty and a second claim after the break, while Coventry’s second arrived against the run of play and during the hosts’ best spell.

Nonetheless, the Sky Blues thoroughly deserved their 2-1 success, both netted by Brandon Thomas-Asante, as they demonstrated why they are presently the best side in the Championship.

Admittedly, Pompey will rue two awful moments of defending for both the visitors’ goals, yet they were simply second best for the majority of the match. No shame in that against such high-flying opposition.

And if that wasn’t disappointing enough, there was the awful sight of an emotional Adrian Segicic leaving the pitch just 10 minutes having entered it, with what appeared to be a knee injury.

Frank Lampard’s men had even paid the Blues the compliment of playing with a back five for the first time this season, while dropping the league’s leading scorer Haji Wright to the bench.

Perhaps it was a tactical masterclass from their boss, who had a frank - and lengthy - exchange of words with Mousinho in the first-half over the baffling non-awarding of a penalty against Jay Dasilva by referee Grant Ward.

Regardless, his Coventry are the best side Pompey have come up against this season and while Makenzie Kirk bagged his maiden goal for the club in stoppage time with a clever finish, it made the scoreline appear far closer than it actually was.

And with fellow promotion hopefuls Middlesbrough and Leicester being frustrated in recent weeks, on this occasion the 20,321 Fratton Park crowd had to begrudgingly accept the best side won.

For the visit of the leaders, Zak Swanson was handed a Pompey recall, replacing Jordan Williams, for his first start in four matches. That represented the only change to the side which collected a point at high-flying Leicester City in the televised Saturday night clash.

With Swanson stepping up from the bench and Williams missing from the 20-man squad, centre-half Ibane Bowat was added to the substitutes on duty.

As expected, Josh Murphy was again absent with his ankle issue, along with fellow casualties Callum Lang, Nicolas Schmid, Conor Shaughnessy and Thomas Waddingham.

In terms of the starting XI, John Swift continued to operate as the number 10 following his maiden Pompey goal in Saturday night’s 1-1 draw at the King Power Stadium, with Conor Chaplin on the right wing once more.

Before kick-off, there was a minute’s applause for late chairman Milan Mandaric, with the Blues wearing black armbands in tribute and renditions of ‘There’s Only One Milan’ ringing around the ground.

When the match got underway, Coventry had a glorious opportunity to take the lead within the opening two minutes.

A ball into the left channel found Ephron Mason-Clark up against Josh Knight and the attacker crashed a fierce shot the wrong side of the post, although some of the travelling cheered, wrongly believing it had found the net.

Then, on eight minutes, a Sky Blues corner from the left curled wickedly in, with Josef Bursik beating it out at the near post, followed by a penalty area scramble before the hosts eventually cleared.

At the other end, Pompey had strong appeals for a spot kick when Minhyeok Yang’s cross from the left appeared to strike the hand of Jay Dasilva inside the box.

Referee Gavin Ward was not interested, although a furious Mousinho spent several minutes arguing with Lampard on the opposite bench over the incident, with the fourth official repeatedly separating them.

Moments later, on 18 minutes, Swanson’s cross from the right was met with a glancing Regan Poole header which flashed agonisingly past the far post.

The game was certainly livening up and Swanson then had to clear Simms’ shot off the line right-footed as Coventry were denied the chance to break the deadlock.

However, the visitors took the lead on 30 minutes through Thomas-Asante following poor defending from a left-wing corner.

The ball was delivered by Matt Grimes to the far post, where it was headed back across goal, with Simms then nodding it goalwards - and Thomas-Asante pouncing to steer it home from close range and make it 1-0.

The Blues produced their first on-target effort on 36 minutes when Swift found himself in plenty of room inside the box, but his curling right-footed attempt was comfortably tipped over by Carl Rushworth.

Coventry remained a threat, however, and Bursik tipped one effort over and, from the resulting corner, Chaplin threw himself in front of a Dasilva shot to block its threat.

The scoreline remained 1-0 at the break, with the Blues asked to attack the Milton End for the second half.

There was an early opportunity when Chaplin pulled the ball back from the right and Andre Dozzell ran onto it to fire a first-time left-footed shot straight down the throat of Rushworth.

Chaplin then fired out during an encouraging start to the half - only for Mousinho’s men to be hit by a sucker punch on 56 minutes.

Knight didn’t deal with a ball down by the touchline up against Ellis and, with a gaping hole now in the centre of defence, Thomas-Asante burst through to finish a simple one-on-one to make it 2-0.

The Blues made a double change on 64 minutes with Adrian Segecic and Terry Devlin on for Yang and Swanson.

However, Segecic was forced off with an injury just 10 minutes later after winning a foul, with the Australian clearly extremely emotional as he was helped down to the dressing room.

He was replaced by Makenzie Kirk, with Florian Bianchini coming on for Connor Ogilvie at the same time.

With Coventry firmly in control, the game petered out, although Chaplin did strike the post with a shot from the edge of the box in the 89th minute.

There was a consolation, though, when Kirk cleverly lobbed Rushworth from the angle after good work from fellow substitute Devlin setting for a barnstorming finish.

Yet Coventry stood firm amid that late drama to claim a deserved victory and strengthen their grip at the Championship summit.