Championship: Portsmouth 1 Southampton 1

Portsmouth denied bitter rivals Southampton their first away win over them in 35 years with a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw at Fratton Park.

Ricky Lambert’s towering header in the 63rd minute from Danny Fox’s set piece broke the deadlock in the south coast derby after both sides failed to break through in a nervy first half.

But just as Saints looked to have again opened up a three-point lead at the top of the Championship, Joel Ward nodded home for Portsmouth with six minutes to spare and send the home faithful into raptures.

Southampton remain top of the league, but only by a point and goal difference, after second-placed West Ham won on Saturday.

The draw comes on the back of Southampton’s broken 21-game home winning streak after their 2-2 draw against Blackpool last Saturday and means they have now won just one of their past five league matches.

Southampton started looking the more likely to score, asking questions of the Pompey defence with a series of corners.

Portsmouth could scarcely get near it at times but nonetheless the visitors failed to find the goal they were after in a first half decidedly lacking in quality.

The first-half arm-wrestle saw Saints go closest through Lambert while David Norris worked a rare chance for Portsmouth late in the half, taking advantage of some sloppy Southampton defending only to roll his tame shot wide.

After the break Southampton started to tighten the screws and having looked a threat from set pieces all game, found their goal via that avenue.

Fox curled in a teasing delivery for the league’s leading scorer Lambert, who leapt highest at the back post to score his 17th goal of the campaign.

Guly do Prado had two chances to make it 2-0 for Southampton, a failure the visitors soon paid for.

Portsmouth looked devoid of ideas in the dying minutes of the match but somehow found a goal through Ward who got on the end of George Thorne’s header across goal.