Adrian Segecic’s second-half strike was enough to help Portsmouth edge to victory against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.
The win eases Pompey’s relegation fears, pulling them out of the bottom three, while Wednesday are an improbable 35 points adrift of safety.
The home side battled well and missed decent opportunities in the first half, but could not find an answer after going behind to Segecic’s shot.
They could only muster one shot on target during the game and their wait for a home win this season goes on.
Portsmouth almost went ahead inside seven minutes as Colby Bishop won the ball high on the right before finding Andre Dozzell, who in turn fed Terry Devlin, but his shot whistled wide of the post.
At the other end, Jamal Lowe saw a shot deflected wide after Barry Bannan combined with Svante Ingelsson down the left before the striker fired in a low cross.
Nicolas Schmid kept the scores level on 24 minutes, denying Lowe with a strong save from Yan Valery’s cross. Ingelsson was then sent through on goal by Bannan, but could not hit the target.
New signing Millenic Alli raced forward for Portsmouth on the counter and searched for Segecic, but Owls on-loan keeper Murphy Cooper reacted quickly to smother the ball.
The visitors broke the deadlock as the game approached the hour mark, and it was Segecic who fired goalwards from inside the area, finding the bottom right corner.
The Australian’s cross deflected off Terry Devlin just over 10 minutes later, but the ball went over the bar as Pompey looked to increase their lead.
Chances were few and far between in the closing stages but John Mousinho’s men held on for a first victory of 2026.
Portsmouth boss John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent:
“This is not an easy place to come and It was a difficult fixture for us to come and face and deal with, it was just a case of making sure we came away from here with three points.
“We looked a bit better in the second half but I still think we could do better, we’re just waiting for some of our attacking presence to come back.
“It was a great finish by Segs (Segecic) who was playing out of position but he took his chance when it came to him, it was one of his better games for us.
“I felt confident but I never felt comfortable but we completely controlled the game after we scored, I was hoping we could get the second but we weren’t able to today.”
