George Brown scores as Sheffield Wednesday record impressive win at Portsmouth

Teenage striker George Brown’s full-league-debut goal helped Sheffield Wednesday to a shock 2-0 win at Portsmouth to claim their first Championship win of the season.

Captain Barry Bannan also netted a first half free-kick as the financially-troubled Owls left Fratton Park stunned.

Portsmouth were without first-choice goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid and talisman Josh Murphy due to injury.

Wednesday almost took full advantage with only six minutes on the clock when Svante Ingelsson saw his header brilliantly turned behind by Ben Killip.

The Owls, who had taken just a single point from their first five games, did open the scoring six minutes later courtesy of veteran club captain Bannan’s second goal of the campaign.

Yan Valery was brought down by Andre Dozzell on the edge of the penalty area and Bannan curled the resulting free-kick beyond Killip to make it 1-0.

Killip will have been disappointed not to have got closer to keeping out the strike.

Killip came to Pompey’s rescue twice in the space of a few seconds in the 22nd minute as the visitors continued to dominate against all pre-match expectations.

Liam Palmer saw his initial shot blocked by Killip and Bannan’s follow-up effort was also pushed behind by the overworked stand-in keeper.

It took until the 27th minute for the hosts to muster their first shot on target when a John Swift effort stung the hands of Owls goalkeeper Evan Horvath before Conor Chaplin fired into the side-netting.

Pompey struggled to get into their rhythm and home boss John Mousinho will have been grateful to hear the half-time whistle with his team only a goal behind at the break.

That changed five minutes after the restart as Brown doubled the Owls tally to the delight of their travelling fans.

Brown had already headed over from a corner when he cashed in on Pompey defender Conor Shaughnessy pulling up injured to run unchallenged into the penalty area and firing high into the far corner.

In the 69th minute home defender Connor Ogilvie put an ambitious header wide from the edge of the penalty area as Mousinho’s men continued to turn in a strangely below-par performance.

Colby Bishop’s late effort cleared off the line by Max Lowe was as close as Pompey came to getting on the scoresheet.

It was the perfect way for beleaguered Wednesday to bounce back from their mid-week EFL Cup defeat at home to League Two Grimsby.

Pompey drop into the bottom half of the table after only their second defeat in their opening six league games.

Mousinho is entitled to ask his players why they failed to show the same commitment levels as in last week’s 0-0 south coast derby draw at bitter rivals Southampton.