Brilliant Portsmouth open Championship account with superb triumph over Lincoln City

Pompey opened their Championship account with a 3-1 win over newly-promoted Lincoln City.

It was a pulsating affair at Sincil Bank as both sides went in search for their first maximum points of the new campaign.

John Mousinho’s troops raced into a two-goal lead through Ryan Kavuma-McQueen and Adrian Segecic, before former Blues winger Reeco Hackett converted from the spot before the break.

But Ebou Adams sealed the points for Pompey mid-way through the second half, firing home a spectacular 25-yard effort.

The head coach made three changes from the opening-day defeat to QPR, with Marlon Pack, Benjy Arthur and Kavuma-McQueen replacing Luke Brooke-Smith, Regan Poole and Adams in the starting XI.

Roared on by the packed-out Sincil Bank crowd, Lincoln started strong and could’ve found an early lead after a defensive mix up by Mousinho’s men.

After Arthur miss-read a challenge on Freddie Draper, the attacker played through strike-partner Ben House, who skipped past Conor Shaughnessy with ease to go one-on-one with Nicolas Schmid.

But the Austrian came to the rescue for the Blues and made himself big to deny House within the opening minutes.

Pompey, though, responded quickly when Abu Kamara broke on the right to find fellow winger Kavuma-McQueen on the left.

The Chelsea loanee took a couple of touches before firing home his first senior goal to open his Blues account.

Moments later, Kavuna-McQueen and Kamara linked up once again and were causing the Lincoln backline all sorts of issues before the latter was fouled on the edge of the box to win a free-kick in a dangerous area.

And Segecic was able to fire the set-piece home to give Mousinho’s troops a deserved two-goal lead after 16 minutes.

Lincoln didn’t accept defeat and responded on the half hour mark, when referee Tony Harrington pointed to the spot after a clear handball by Zak Swanson in the box.

Indeed, Hackett was able to convert against his former side to pull a goal back for the Imps, who were causing problems for Pompey before the break.

Despite an action-packed opening 45 minutes, the second half offered very little for both sides in the opening stages.

Although Kamara had a speculative effort, which went over the bar, the Blues’ best second-half opportunity came on the hour mark when the winger played through Bishop.

While the striker was able to get a toe to the pass forward, it was enough to call Wickens into action to deflect the ball behind.

But Pompey were able to add a third through Adams, who was only introduced just moments before.

The midfielder was lining up an effort from 25-yards before unleashing a venomous strike to

There was some concern, though, when second-half substitute Josh Murphy went down injured off the ball and was forced to be withdrawn.

Mousinho’s troops could’ve had a fourth when Kamara found Segecic unmarked in the box. However, the attacker’s weak effort was well saved by Wickens in goal.

There was one last piece of defending to do for Pompey when Josh Knight made a headed clearance on the goal line to deny Rob Street deep into second half stoppage time.