Two stoppage-time goals sank Swansea City at Fratton Park tonight. Portsmouth won 3-1, with full-back Terry Devlin scoring twice.
Substitute Zan Vipotnik had levelled from the spot five minutes from time. Moments later, Ross Stewart hit the crossbar.
Then Devlin struck again in the second minute of added time, and Thomas Waddingham added a third with the last kick of the game.
It is a third defeat in four for Vitor Matos’s side. They slip out of the Championship’s automatic promotion places.
Terry Devlin punishes Swansea before the break
Matos made four changes from the 4-0 win over Blackburn. Jenson Seelt, Gonçalo Franco and Adam Idah started, along with Marko Stamenic, back after the fever that kept him out on Saturday.
Stephen Eustáquio and Jisung Eom were missing through injury. Club captain Ben Cabango and Stewart started on the bench, with Jay Fulton taking the armband.
The injury list grew after 23 minutes, when Stephen Welsh limped off with a knee problem and Cabango came on.
Pompey had chances through Adrian Segecic and Tyrese Shade before taking a deserved lead shortly before half-time.
Marko Milovanovic’s cross was not cleared, and Devlin guided it home from 10 yards beyond the dive of Lawrence Vigouroux.
The Swans offered next to nothing going forward in the first half. A weak Franco shot on the stroke of half-time was their best effort.
Zan Vipotnik penalty after Regan Poole pulls him back
Swansea were better after the break but lacked a cutting edge, with Portsmouth happy to sit deep and hit them on the counter.
Vipotnik, last season’s top scorer, came on after an hour. Moments later Joseph Opoku had a volley blocked, and fellow substitute Elijah Just could not convert Josh Tymon’s cross.
Josh Key, on for Filip Lissah, just failed to reach a Just cross at the far post, and goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid saved a long-range drive from Stamenic.
Five minutes from time, Regan Poole pulled Vipotnik back by the shirt in the box, and the referee pointed to the spot to the defender’s exasperation.
The Slovenian sent his penalty low to the left, and the away end erupted.
Ross Stewart hits the bar, then the stoppage-time sucker punch
The Swans then had a golden chance to win it. Just rolled a pass across the face of goal to Stewart at the back post, but the Scotland striker’s effort clipped the crossbar.
Instead, it was Pompey who struck. Devlin swept home from a half-cleared corner in the second minute of added time.
With the Swans throwing players forward, Waddingham latched on to a long ball, got the better of Cabango and drilled in a third in the eighth minute of added time.
Swans drop to fourth as Portsmouth extend unbeaten run to six
Matos had warned before the game that Saturday’s win guaranteed nothing in “a ruthless league”.
The Blackburn rout followed defeats to West Ham and QPR, and the early-season pacesetters have lost momentum.
The Swans drop to fourth. Portsmouth climb to 10th, outside the play-off places only on goal difference, and are unbeaten in six.
Next up is a trip to high-flying Birmingham City at St Andrew’s on Saturday (3pm). They leapfrogged the Swans into second place after beating Millwall 3-0 at home.
Swansea City team v Portsmouth
Swansea City: Vigouroux; Lissah (Key 72), Welsh (Cabango 23), Seelt, Tymon; Fulton (capt) (Stewart 72), Stamenic, Franco; Opoku, Widell (Just 46), Idah (Vipotnik 60).
