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After kick-off had been delayed by more than half an hour to deal with a medical emergency in the crowd, Portsmouth went behind to a goal from Emmanuel Latte Lath on the half-hour.

But the hosts roared back in the second half to take all three points and move a little closer to safety, denting Boro's aim of reaching the top six in the process.

"I think it's one of our best wins of the season, with all the circumstances and the fact I think Middlesbrough are one of the best sides in the league. We've watched them tear sides apart," Pompey boss John Mousinho said.

"Going 1-0 down and dealing with the hammer blow of Wednesday night [a 3-0 loss to Blackburn Rovers on Thursday AEDT], to pick ourselves up and put in that level of performance was superb.

"I thought it was a really good game of football and one that, on balance, we deserved to win."

Boro boss Michael Carrick was critical of his side's current habit of not putting games away when in the lead.

"We let the game get away from us again. It's something we've let happen far too often recently," he said.

"Coming here, how they play and how they make the game feel, I thought we dealt with it first half and the start of the second half, we had chances to go 2-0 up which we didn't take and the game's always on a knife edge.

"We spoke about concentration and how the game can flip in one moment, and their first goal had a massive effect on things.

"So we're hurting about coming away with nothing after the position we put ourselves in."