Plymouth Argyle 2-2 Portsmouth: Dockyard derby ends in entertaining draw
- Published
John Marquis has scored eight goals in his past seven games for Portsmouth
Plymouth Argyle and Portsmouth shared the points after an entertaining League One draw at Home Park.
Sean Raggett turned Frank Nouble's shot past his own goalkeeper to give Argyle an early lead as the home side impressed in the opening period.
John Marquis levelled from the penalty spot before Tom Naylor fired in Pompey's second two minutes later.
But Argyle levelled when Jerome Opoku scored from close range after a goalkeeping error from a free-kick.
The draw was the 14th home game without defeat for Plymouth, who stay ninth, while Portsmouth move into the final play-off place and stay unbeaten on the road this season.
Having gone ahead early, Argyle almost doubled their lead midway through the first half when Panutche Camara stole possession in the Pompey half and fed Nouble, whose shot from 12 yards was palmed away by Craig MacGillivray.
George Cooper curled an effort wide as Argyle had the lion's share of the first-half chances. Pompey's best first-half effort came in stoppage time when Ryan Williams missed the target after getting on the end of Cameron Pring's far-post cross.
Portsmouth brought on Ellis Harrison and Jack Whatmough for Ben Close and Rasmus Nicolaisen at half-time as they moved to a back four, but it was Argyle who almost went further ahead as Pring superbly cleared Ryan Hardie's effort after two good saves by MacGillivray.
But the visitors grew into the half as Marquis blasted just wide from the edge of the box after an hour and Michael Cooper was forced into an acrobatic save from Naylor soon after.
From the resulting corner Pompey won the equalising penalty when Whatmough's header hit Kelland Watts' arm, before going ahead two minutes later when Andrew Cannon's cross was fired into the bottom corner from the edge of the box by Naylor.
Argyle's equaliser was fortuitous as MacGillivray missed George Cooper's free-kick to the far post, allowing Dom Telford to head back across goal for Fulham loanee Opoku to score his first senior goal.
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