West Brom 1 Portsmouth 1: Frustrated West Brom held as Ryan Mason sent off
West Brom were forced to settle for a point in a game that saw second half controversy as Ryan Mason was handed a straight red card.
Mikey Johnston's piece of first half magic had given Albion the lead at the interval but Portsmouth bagged a deserved leveller through Colby Bishop ten minutes into the second period.
The flashpoints came around the hour mark - as Mason's protests around a turned down penalty appeal and the failure to hand Portsmouth's Regan Poole a clear second yellow resulted in him being sent off by referee Elliot Bell.
Albion did most of the pushing late on but couldn't carve out a winner and were forced to settle for a point.
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Mason made an unsurprising change with Johnston handed a recall following an impressive display at Wrexham - while Krystian Bielik's surprise absence paving the way for Alex Williams to be named in a first senior squad.
Albion launched out of the traps in the opening seconds of the game - as Tom Fellows broke and cross for Aune Heggebo who saw his header blocked.
Mason's side enjoyed a few half decent passages of play in the opening moments - but at the other end they were careless in possession on a couple of occasions and were almost punished in the first 20 minutes.
First a slack pass was cut out and Pompey broke with Adrian Segecic dragging wide - before seconds later Josh Griffiths produced a superb one on one save to deny Florian Bianchini after his side had conceded possession.
It was the visitors who had a slight bit of control midway through the first period - as Albion were struggling to break through Pompey's pressing with any great joy.
Shortly before the half hour mark though, they had just began to win back a bit of control of possession when they struck.
Out of nowhere, Johnston was given too much time on the edge of the box to drop his shoulder and wrap an effort past the motionless Nicolas Schmid and into the top corner.
It was a goal of the highest quality and justified Mason's decision to recall the former Celtic man.
It could well have been six minutes before half time - as Pompey were the ones slack on the ball, however it was a former Albion man who was the culprit.
Heggebo nicked the ball off John Swift, with Johnston picking up the ball and driving forward before slipping in Alex Mowatt but the visitors recovered to snuff the chance out.
Bianchini and Josh Murphy were both denied by Griffiths late in the half - while Heggebo steered a Fellows cross wide from two yards out but had his blushes spared by the offside flag.
It was clear that Albion had not quite showed the quality in possession that they had done in the opening two games of the campaign - and that needed to improve as they came out for the second half.
It did initially as a spell of pressure led to Alex Mowatt crashing a curling effort off the post.
But within ten minutes of the break Pompey found a deserved equaliser. Fellows failed to stop a Murphy cross and Bishop got the run on Campbell to steer a header well beyond Griffiths.
After the goal the game turned a bit frantic - with Albion again struggling to get a grip on possession.
They did do on the hour mark with a superb cutting move - which led to two big flash points in the game.
Jayson Molumby found Heggebo who saw the ball taken off his toe by Connor Ogilvie - as Albion launched huge appeals for a penalty.
They were waved away while Mason saw himself booked for his protests on the sidelines. Replays showed the defender got the slightest of touches on the ball.
Moments later Heggebo was played in and hauled back by last man Poole who was already on a yellow card. The referee decided against sending the defender off - with Mason left raging down on the touchline.
His protests led to a red card and being sent to the stands by referee Elliot Bell - who then got the wrath of the Baggies fans.
Albion showed their hand with ten minutes left, as they went two up front with Josh Maja coming on in a bid to snatch a later winner.
Mowatt had a free kick saved and they came close to turning in a corner - but they struggled to carve out anything really meaningful as a resolute Pompey held out for a point.
Albion: Griffiths, Furlong, Phillips, Campbell, Styles, Mowatt, Molumby (Collyer 87), Fellows (Wallace 87), Price (Maja 81), Johnston (Grant 59), Heggebo
Subs not used: Wildsmith, Williams, Taylor,Diakite, Cole
Portsmouth: Schmid, Ogilvie, Poole, Shaughnessy, Swift (Le Roux 56), Bishop (Devlin 76), Segecic (Kosznovsky 85), Bianchini (Waddingham 56), Dozzell, Swanson (Williams 76), Murphy
Subs not used: Killip, Matthews, Bowat, Min-Hyeok
