Conor Chaplin scored the first goal of his second spell at his boyhood club to set Portsmouth on course for a dominant 3-0 victory over relegation rivals West Brom.
Chaplin, who joined Pompey as a six-year-old before returning on loan from Ipswich, opened the scoring before January arrivals Millenic Alli and Ebou Adams gave them comfort.
The beleaguered Baggies have won just once in nine matches, have not won on the road since the start of October and sit just three points outside the relegation zone.
Pompey had scored late to secure a point against bitter rivals Southampton last weekend and continued the momentum with a superb first-half performance, which blew the Baggies away.
Chaplin in particular had the bit between his teeth as he fired shot after shot towards Max O’Leary’s goal.
His barrage began in the second minute when he stabbed a Terry Devlin cross wide before curling straight at O’Leary from 25 yards, and then sliding across the face of goal after a fine passing move down the right.
Chaplin finally got his reward, and his long-awaited goal on his return at Pompey, in the 20th minute when Alli pulled the ball back into the area and the forward fired in with aplomb.
It ended 2,910 days since last scoring for Portsmouth before continuing his career at Coventry, Barnsley and Ipswich.
Five minutes later and the hosts doubled their lead as Alli ran beyond the West Brom backline to slide under O’Leary. It was the winger’s first goal since arriving on loan from Luton two weeks ago.
West Brom were thankful for the half-time whistle, after a half in which they had only had one shot – a wayward effort off-target – and entered the Portsmouth box twice.
It was unsurprising when Eric Ramsay ripped up his game plan, made a triple substitution and switched formation from three to four at the back.
However, three minutes after the break, Pompey had a third and the hopes of a Baggies comeback dissolved.
Chaplin added an assist to his goal by threading in Adams and, despite O’Leary appearing to make a fine instinctive save, the ball bounced over the line. It further added to Adams’ cult hero status, having netted the equaliser against Saints.
Mikey Johnston gave Portsmouth goalkeeper Nicolas Schmid his only piece of work for the day when a rasping shot needed tipping over.
The second half petered out, with West Brom lacking quality and Pompey taking their foot off the gas with a rescheduled match with Ipswich coming on Tuesday.
Chaplin almost added gloss to his day with a 89th-minute shot, but his effort was blocked, and Pompey made it four without defeat in the league and climbed above West Brom, and four points clear of the drop zone.
The day was soured late in the second half when assistant referee James Wilson was struck by a missile thrown from the home end.
