Stefan Thordarson scored just his second goal of the season to earn Preston a late 2-1 victory over Portsmouth in the Sky Bet Championship.

The 26-year-old showed impressive footwork to net the winner in the 87th minute of a game that only really exploded into life in the latter stages.

Ryan Porteous netted his first goal for Preston in the 76th minute before Colby Bishop equalised with his second goal in three matches.

Pompey started the game well and Terry Devlin should have done better in the 19th minute but the right-back snatched at his finish, sending a tame effort harmlessly wide of the far corner.

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The visitors were doing more of the probing as Josh Murphy tested Freddie Woodman with a speculative shot from range before forcing Liam Lindsay into an excellent clearance with a teasing 37th-minute cross.

Andre Dozzell nearly bagged the opener with a piece of ingenuity at odds with most of the first-half play, curling narrowly wide from just inside the box on the stroke of the interval.

After a lethargic opening half from the hosts, Paul Heckingbottom made four alterations for the start of the second period with Robbie Brady, Ben Whiteman, Sam Greenwood and Andrew Hughes all entering the action in a bid to shake the Lilywhites out of their slumber.

The changes did inject some punch into proceedings and one of those fresh faces, Greenwood, set up the chance of the game with the hour-mark approaching, bending an inch-perfect pass towards Emil Riis, but North End's top scorer headed wide from 10 yards.

Somewhat against the run of play, the visitors then nearly took the lead in remarkable fashion as Cohen Brammall rattled the bar with a sensational 40-yard piledriver.

It looked like the game might fizzle out as a stalemate but it was a later substitute, Ched Evans, who ensured there was to be a goal, touching a well-worked free-kick across the six-yard box for Porteous to turn home at the far post.

However, Portsmouth roared back quickly and Bishop powered home an 83rd-minute header from Murphy's corner to seal what looked like a deserved point.

Preston almost won it just moments after the equaliser as Brady teed up Evans for what looked like a tap-in from a few yards out, only for visiting goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid to make a remarkable save with his foot.

But the home team did get their late winner and it was brilliant from Thordarson, taking Brady's punt down brilliantly before rounding Schmid and finishing well from a tight angle.

The hosts earned their first league win in seven attempts despite Greenwood's late dismissal after picking up his second yellow in the fourth minute of stoppage time.

The managers

Preston's Paul Heckingbottom:

"I've been really impressed with Portsmouth, how they've changed things and turned things around. I think our game against them marked a big turning point for them down there. They compete to win.

"Without the ball, they've become a really difficult team to play against. The press is fantastic, the work ethic of the players is really good and their organisation is good. They make it difficult and I thought we were sort of accepting that in the first half.

"We weren't, but I felt they were having too big of an impact on how we wanted to play so we needed to change it, and we did.

"I've said many times, I want our team to be fearless and to play on the front foot so the changes at half-time were to reflect that."

Portsmouth's John Mousinho:

"Ultimately, my focus is on what happened after we got the equaliser, and the performance after that was abysmal. I'm absolutely furious.

"You equalise, 1-1 away from home against Preston - a good Championship side - take the point, sit in and we can still catch them on the counter-attack, but we just went completely off script.

"We started doing the wrong things on the press and the goal is the worst goal we've conceded this season.

"I have banged on for 38 games and about 100 games since I've been in charge about fouling early, stopping sides from having the opportunity to break on us quickly, but we decided to do otherwise.

"I can always deal with sides scoring goals against us and deal with losses. I can't deal with sides scoring goals against us and losses where the players are doing their own thing and not doing what I've asked them to do.

"I've probably been far too nice to the players for a long time and if the message isn't filtering in then I've got to try and do it in a different way."

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