Report | Swansea City 2 Portsmouth 2
Swansea City fought back from two goals down to claim a point against Portsmouth at the Swansea.com Stadium.
The Swans had trailed 2-0 after Matt Ritchie and Josh Murphy had finished chances from situations where the hosts failed to clear their lines.
But they responded quickly when Liam Cullen’s superb cross was put into his own net by Connor Ogilvie.
Cullen then got on the scoresheet to level matters early in the second half as the Swans surged back into the contest.
Cullen, Jisung Eom and Florian Bianchini went within a whisker of grabbing a winner but it wasn’t to be in what was a frenetic Championship encounter.
Josh Key and Joe Allen came into the Swans team as Kyle Naughton and Goncalo Franco dropped to the bench.
Eom was named among the substitutes as he came back from a knee injury, while Harry Darling overcame illness to remain in the heart of the defence.
The visitors had not played for three weeks owing to a pair of postponements, and they looked rusty early on as Zan Vipotnik saw a shot blocked and Darling landed a header on the roof of the net inside the opening 90 seconds.
Allen then flashed a header just wide of the near post after being picked out by a lovely ball from skipper Matt Grimes.
Cullen then fired wide after a lovely backheel by Ronald had freed Josh Tymon from a well-worked corner routine.
But, after that fast start, Swansea began to struggle to find a way through a stubborn defence, and the visitors took the lead when Ritchie met a low cross from Josh Murphy to open the scoring in the 25th minute.
The hosts looked to respond, Vipotnik heading narrowly over the bar after an excellent move started by Lawrence Vigouroux, Grimes and Allen.
Cullen was then unable to turn home after Darling had sent Josh Key careering into space to deliver a low cutback through a series of bodies.
Ronald shot straight at the keeper but instead the visitors doubled their lead when the Swans failed to clear a ball in behind and Murphy rifled a low half-volley into the bottom corner of the net.
However, Swansea pulled one back almost immediately and just before the interval.
Cullen delivered a wonderful cross from the left and Ogilvie, under pressure from Myles Peart-Harris, could only steer the ball past his keeper and watch it trickle into the net.
Swansea so nearly levelled five minutes into the second period. A lovely pass from Ben Cabango allowed Key to tee up Peart-Harris. The midfielder’s effort struck the underside of the bar and Cullen’s follow-up volley was well saved by Nico Schmid in the Pompey goal.
But the equaliser came just moments later, Grimes sending the ball wide for Peart-Harris, who picked out Cullen to fire home his fifth goal of the season.
All the momentum was with the hosts and Eom missed a gilt-edged chance to put them ahead seconds after coming on, but saw his shot slide agonisingly wide from Tymon’s pullback.
Swansea pressed and pressed, sending bodies forward in an effort to complete the turnaround, with Portsmouth looking to capitalise as the contest became increasingly stretched.
Cullen looked certain to find the net after Darling and Tymon had combined to devastating effect down the left, but Schmid made an incredible save to deny the in-form Wales international.
As time ticked down, Cullen's reverse pass found Bianchini's clever run, but the Frenchman could only drag his effort wide of the target when one-on-one with the keeper as it ended level.
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux, Josh Key, Ben Cabango, Harry Darling, Josh Tymon; Matt Grimes (captain), Joe Allen (Jisung Eom 64), Liam Cullen; Ronald (Azeem Abdulai 73), Myles Peart-Harris, Žan Vipotnik (Florian Bianchini 73).
Unused Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Jay Fulton, Gonçalo Franco, Nathan Tjoe-A-On, Cyrus Christie, Kyle Naughton.
Portsmouth: Nico Schmid, Connor Ogilvie, Regan Poole, Marlon Pack (captain), Freddie Potts, Colby Bishop (Mark O’Mahony 52), Andre Dozzell, Josh Murphy (Paddy Lane 81), Terry Devlin, Matt Ritchie (Harvey Blair 67), Callum Lang.
Unused Substitutes: Jordan Archer, Christian Saydee, Tom McIntyre, Owen Moxon, Elias Sorensen, Abdoulaye Kamara.
Referee: Will Finnie
Attendance: 15,404