Portsmouth players celebrate after scoringImage source, Shutterstock
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Portsmouth are now seven points clear of the Championship's bottom three

ByDan George
BBC Sport England at Fratton Park

Portsmouth beat second-from-bottom Leicester City to leave the Foxes in real danger of being relegated from the Championship.

Ibane Bowat scored the game's only goal, bundling the ball into the net at the back post from an Adrian Segecic corner.

This result, coupled with West Brom's 2-0 victory at Preston, leaves Gary Rowett's side eight points from safety, with only three games - against Hull City, Millwall and Blackburn Rovers - still to play.

The Foxes have failed to win any of their past six matches and have only won 11 league games all season.

Portsmouth are now seven points clear of the relegation zone with three games to play and can no longer be caught in the table by Leicester.

Leicester, Premier League champions 10 years ago, had shouts for a penalty waved away by referee Gavin Ward in the opening 10 minutes when Conor Shaughnessy brought Patson Daka down in the box but nothing was given.

The hosts were forced into making two early changes when winger Keshi Anderson and full-back Terry Devlin, who recently picked up Portsmouth's player of the season award, were withdrawn because of injury.

The first shot on target came in the final moments of first-half stoppage time when Leicester forward Bobby De Cordova-Reid broke beyond Shaughnessy but his low effort was fired into the arms of Nicolas Schmid.

After the break Pompey had a great chance to score when Millenic Alli was played through by Colby Bishop but he only ended up taking the ball out of play while attempting to dribble around Asmir Begovic, much to the frustration of the home support.

But John Mousinho's side were able to break the deadlock just after the hour when Segecic sent a high, curling corner to the back post where Bowat bundled the ball into the net.

Moments later there were unsavoury scenes when Hamza Choudhury exchanged words with a Portsmouth supporter in the stands after being substituted and had to be escorted to the bench by the officials and a Leicester staff member to the jeers of the home fans.

Daka had a chance for an equaliser saved at close range by Schmid and moments later Foxes defender Jannik Vestergaard saw a shot blocked by Regan Poole, who threw himself at the effort.

Poole came close to becoming the villain moments after that heroic block, underhitting a backpass to Schmid that saw Daka run through on goal, but the Pompey keeper produced a fine tackle to end to the danger.

Jannik Vestergaard (23) of Leicester City looks dejected at full timeImage source, Shutterstock
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Leicester could now be relegated at home to Hull City on Tuesday if results go against them

Eight days key to Portsmouth's likely survival

While Portsmouth are not mathematically safe, their past three results in eight days have been crucial to their hopes of staying up.

After the draw with Oxford United on Easter Monday, the Blues have gone on to beat Middlesbrough, Ipswich and now Leicester to move seven points clear of danger with just three games to go.

Mousinho's side were under serious pressure away at Boro a week ago before going on to snatch victory in added time.

They then capitalised in two home games, aggressive in their approach against Ipswich before finding a way to get over the line in Saturday's scrappy affair with the Foxes, who were fighting for their lives.

At a crucial time in the season Pompey's key players have stepped up, Marlon Pack in particular outstanding on the ball in both home wins this week.

The three clean sheets in those games will have particularly pleased Mousinho, whose side have leaked goals for much of the season but now seem to have found a real solidity at an important time.

Leicester battle but lack quality

Despite the result, it was a gritty performance, at least in the first half, by the majority of the Leicester players in a game that lacked quality and started with both sides looking quite nervous.

Towards the end, as desperation increased, there were moments that turned unsavoury, with Choudhury clashing with officials and the home fans, while some of the players were also involved in a verbal altercation with opposition players towards the end.

On the pitch, Leicester had some chances to score and on another day could have taken an early lead when Daka went down from Shaughnessy's challenge that had the away fans calling for a spot-kick.

Daka also had a great chance in the second half when Poole underhit a backpass and if he could have knocked it past Schmid then they could have been leaving the south coast with a point.

Despite winning only two league games in 2026 and losing 18 times all season, the Foxes will need to win their remaining three games and hope other results go their way to stand any chance of staying up.

'Not a pretty game' - Mousinho

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John Mousinho: 'We got the job done'

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho speaking to BBC Radio Solent:

"That was probably the toughest 90 minutes of our last three games.

"It was hugely important and overall we deserved the win, we just had to get the job done because it wasn't a pretty game.

"The start of the game doesn't help with the injuries we picked up with Keshi (Anderson) and that changed the way that we play a little bit as Segs (Adrian Segecic) is a very different player.

"And then with the injury to Terry (Devlin) we had to restructure the back four and nothing got going in the first half at all.

"Thankfully, we had a couple of good chances before the goal and probably could have done better but managed to find the net."

Frustration for Rowett at 'soft set-piece goal'

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Post Match: Portsmouth (A)

Leicester City boss Gary Rowett speaking to BBC Radio Leicester:

"I'm disappointed with the way we conceded the goal to lose the game.

"If you played my last four interviews it would sound very similar to this one, which is deeply frustrating.

"We've made it pretty clear to the players the importance of where we are in the season and what it means to a lot of people at this football club.

"We got into some really good positions but without finding that final third quality, we have to show that and we can't keep not showing it in those moments.

"We tweaked a few things after the break and the frustration is that we've conceded a soft set-piece goal. We chased the game reasonably well and we created some good moments but didn't take them.

"That's been the story of this last 10-11games for us."

Player of the match

Number: 1 N. Schmid
Average rating 8.19
Number: 1 N. Schmid
Average Rating: 8.19
Number: 17 I. Bowat
Average Rating: 7.93
Number: 5 R. Poole
Average Rating: 7.89
Number: 7 M. Pack
Average Rating: 7.83
Number: 6 C. Shaughnessy
Average Rating: 7.74
Number: 21 A. Dozzell
Average Rating: 7.69
Number: 2 J. Williams
Average Rating: 7.68
Number: 10 A. Segečić
Average Rating: 7.64
Number: 9 C. Bishop
Average Rating: 7.59
Number: 38 E. Adams
Average Rating: 7.37
Number: 24 T. Devlin
Average Rating: 7.20
Number: 40 J. Brown
Average Rating: 7.18
Number: 36 C. Chaplin
Average Rating: 7.14
Number: 27 M. Alli
Average Rating: 6.87
Number: 37 K. Anderson
Average Rating: 6.87

After the opportunity to rate players has closed, the score displayed represents the average from all the submissions by BBC Sport users.

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