Instant Portsmouth hero Adrian Segecic misses out on team of week dominated by Bristol City, Millwall and Leicester

Goalscorer Adrian Segecic was Pompey’s hero at Oxford United on Saturday as the Blues started their latest season with a win - but was his outstanding display enough to earn him a place in the Championshup team of the week?

Pompey kicked off their Championship season in impressive fashion with an important away win at Oxford United on Saturday.

That winning feeling on the road was only experienced three times during the entire 2024-25 campaign, so to begin their latest season with three points on their travels represents a significant feat.

Debutant Adrian Segecic was the man to secure the victory for John Mousinho’s side, with the 21-year-old superbly finding the back of the net in the first half with the sweetest of left-shot efforts after Colby Bishop’s initial shot was saved and parried by U’s keeper Jamie Cumming.

The former Sydney FC forward had already made a huge impression on the Fratton faithful in pre-season following his free transfer move from the A-League outfit in June.

So to mark his maiden competitive appearance for the Blues in such a way will only help endear himself to the Pompey supporters even more.

While Segecic grabbed all the headlines, though, the contributions of others also deserved recognition. Keeper Nicolas Schmid picked up where he left off last season with another eye-catching display, the newly-restored central defensive pairing of Regan Poole and Conor Shaughnessy looked impenetrable, while Callum Lang didn’t look like a player who had missed chunks of pre-season with a hamstring injury.

But how did these impressive Pompey performances on the opening weekend of the new season stack up against the individual displays of players at their Championship rivals?

Well, according to whoscored.com, not that strong, with the EFL’s team-of-the-week partner putting greater value on the contributions of others on game day one of the new campaign.

With that in mind, Segecic (8.12 whoscored.com rating), in particular, can feel a bit aggrieved. But with 45 league matches still to play, there’s plenty of time for the young Aussie and his Fratton Park team-mates to make their mark.

Here’s the first team of the week from the 2025-26 Championship season - a side dominated by Bristol City players following their 4-1 hammering of Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.

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