Bishop keeps faith to battle back from spot-kick hell

COLBY Bishop went from villain to hero as Portsmouth fought back from 2-0 down to keep their faint play-off hopes alive.

Bishop converted a second-half penalty after seeing his first-half spotkick saved, before Michael Jacobs earned Pompey a precious point three minutes later.

Blues boss John Mousinho said: “That shows what Colby’s

Portsmouth 2 P Vale 2

character is all about. To miss that at 2-0 down and to take that again showed a lot of steel.

“He said they were the two worst penalties he’s ever hit in his life but sometimes you get lucky and he deserved that.”

Pompey stunned a packed Fratton Park into silence by gifting Vale their two first half goals.

Poacher Matty Taylor seized on Connor Ogilvie dwelling on the ball inside his own box to slot home after just eight minutes.

Funso Ojo took advantage of goalkeeper Matt Macey’s poor clearance to double the visitors’ lead six minutes before half-time.

Bishop then saw his weak penalty saved by Aidan Stone just before the break before making amends in the 67th minute. Jacobs swept

Pompey level with 20 minutes left to play and Pompey would have won it in stoppage time but for Stone’s stunning save to keep out Reeco Hackett’s deflected strike.

On Pompey’s chances of making the top six, Mousinho said: “It is definitely still alive.”

Vale boss Darrell Clarke said: “There is a lot of disappointment in the changing room because we wanted all three points but there are a lot of positives.

“We said we would come down here and take the game to them and we did that.”