Callum Lang scored a sensational four goals as Portsmouth came from behind to thrash Coventry 4-1 at Fratton Park, giving visiting boss Frank Lampard a further reminder of how tough a division the second tier can be.
Norman Bassette had given Coventry a lead inside 150 seconds but Lang – who had not previously scored a professional hat-trick – turned them around with a magnificent individual performance.
It added some weight to Pompey’s survival hopes – they started the day in the drop zone – and gave them a fourth home game on the spin without defeat.
The eventual result had seemed unlikely when Ephron Mason-Clark burst out of the gates to continue his fine recent form. He drove down the left before perfectly placing a ball on Bassette’s foot for a back-post tap-in inside three minutes.
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Callum Lang bags four goals for Portsmouth in just 55 minutes against Coventry!
It was the former Peterborough winger’s fifth goal involvement in his last five matches.
Cov should have doubled their advantage almost immediately as Ben Sheaf pinged a ball over the top to part the defence, but Bassette squandered his one-on-one with Nicolas Schmid.
But out of nowhere, Portsmouth levelled in the 14th minute, with goalkeeper Bradley Collins gifting an equaliser to Lang.
Colby Bishop had fought for the ball after a corner before squaring to Lang, who lashed towards the near post, where Collins let the ball underneath him.
Mason-Clark struck the post, Jack Rudoni was thwarted at his feet by Schmid, Bassette found the side netting and Connor Ogilvie poked straight at Collins as the match turned frantic.
But Pompey gained control of the match either side of half-time – scoring two minutes before and three minutes after the interval.
Lang’s second was a moment of attacking brilliance as he capitalised on a weak defensive header from Jay Dasilva before holding off the full-back and hammering the ball sweetly into the roof of the net from an acute angle.
The ex-Wigan forward then chalked up his first career hat-trick with a header from Freddie Potts’ corner, after finding himself unmarked in the six-yard box.
His fourth was probably his easiest as he smashed into an open goal after Collins had excellently denied Bishop and clawed the ball away from the line.
City boss Lampard made a quadruple substitution in the 63rd minute but they had little impact.
Chelsea great Lampard has faced Pompey 16 times as a player and won all 16 matches, scoring 10 goals in the process, but could not re-find that magic has he was condemned to his second defeat as Coventry manager.
Josh Eccles, one of the four-hour mark changes, had Coventry’s only shot of the second half in injury time – well saved by Schmid – but the visitors still only have two wins from 15 away trips.
The managers
Portsmouth’s John Mousinho:
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Coventry’s Frank Lampard:
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