Barry Bannan is in his 11th season at Sheffield Wednesday
Sheffield Wednesday ended their winless run in style by claiming a deserved first Championship victory of the season at Portsmouth.
Owls captain Barry Bannan struck early with a superb 20-yard free-kick that wrong-footed Pompey keeper Ben Killip.
George Brown then doubled the lead five minutes after half-time, pouncing on Conor Shaughnessy's slip and injury to net his first senior career goal.
Pompey nearly replied late on through Hayden Matthews, but his close-range effort was cleared off the line in what was a day to forget for the Blues at Fratton Park.
Portsmouth's defeat means they slip to 12th in the table while Sheffield Wednesday climb to 22nd.
John Mousinho made only two changes from Pompey's draw at Southampton last weekend, with reserve keeper Killip replacing the injured Nicolas Schmid in goal and Swansea loannee Florian Bianchini starting in place of Josh Murphy, who instead watched from the directors' box at Fratton Park.
The Owls,meanwhile, made eight alterations from their shock midweek EFL Cup exit to Grimsby, captain Bannan and experienced defender Dominic Iorfa among those restored to the starting XI.
Just a minute after the travelling Wednesday fans protested once again against owner Dejphon Chansiri, Bannan quickly changed the tone for his side of 10 years, curling in a precise 12th-minute free-kick to put the visitors ahead.
Pompey, ragged in possession and repeatedly loose at the back, struggled to create clear openings, their best first-half chance a blocked Conor Chaplin effort late on.
Any hopes of a second-half recovery evaporated when Wednesday's Brown - making his league debut - pounced on the unfortunate Shaughnessy, who went down injured from chasing the ball and the 19-year-old fired past Killip into the bottom left corner.
Killip, jittery early, grew into the game with a string of saves to keep his side in it, but frustration grew inside Fratton Park as Mousinho's team laboured in and out of possession.
Summer signings Makenzie Kirk and Mark Kosznovszky offered late energy off the bench, and striker Colby Bishop twice went close in the last 20 minutes, denied by Max Lowe on the line and then keeper Ethan Horvath twice.
Portsmouth were denied by a goalline clearance for a second time when Matthews' close-range strike from a corner was hacked away by Dominic Iorfa.
Thankfully for Owls coach Henrik Pedersen, Wednesday's discipline and defensive resilience proved enough to seal a morale-boosting win and leave Pompey ruing an unusual flat display.
'I'm so proud of the boys' - reaction
Portsmouth manager John Mousinho on BBC Radio Solent:
"Frustration isn't my overriding emotion, I don't think. Frustration would signal that maybe we were in the game, maybe we deserved something, and we didn't.
"We were awful for 90 minutes and got exactly what we deserved... [we tried] to protect against it all week, talking about how difficult the game would be, how we needed to be right on top of ourselves and not let any complacency creep in and it has happened previously.
"We probably had a very similar picture when we beat Leeds at home last year, got ourselves up for the game, and then by the time we returned and played Plymouth on the Wednesday, we lost a game we never should have lost.
"A similar pattern we've followed after a really solid start. We have been trying to protect against that all week, but clearly we haven't managed to do it."
John Mousinho: 'We were awful for 90 minutes'
Sheffield Wednesday manager Henrik Pedersen on BBC Radio Sheffield:
"I'm very happy, very proud. I think it was a very intensive performance today and an intensive game.
"We had some experience in the last games where we were quickly one or two nil down, [so we needed] to give ourselves a good beginning, then we should stay in the game.
"One of the key things to win the game is how many times we could play a team-mate in [at] speed behind the opponent's defending line so a big performance to have the discipline to keep up the game plan [for] 90 minutes.
"I'm so proud of the boys."
Pedersen: 'I'm very, very happy'
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