Louie Sibley's equaliser earned Oxford United a point at Portsmouth.

Keeper Jamie Cumming saved an early penalty from Elias Sorensen but was unable to rescue the visitors shorty before the hour mark, when former Oxford man Josh Murphy assisted Mark O'Mahony for the game's opener.

The U's responded less than 15 minutes later when Sibley scored his first goal for the club .

Portsmouth have now drawn five of their nine Championship matches this season and are the only team in the division without a league win, while Oxford continue to search for their first away win of the campaign.

The Blues started the game fast, dominating possession and threatening around the Oxford goal in the opening moments.

Their early pressure was rewarded when they won a penalty in just the third minute after Will Vaulks handled a Christian Saydee cross. Up stepped Sorensen, whose spot-kick was well saved Cumming, who was quickly down to his left to make the stop.

Portsmouth started the second half with a similar intensity and nearly took the lead when Murphy placed a lovely in behind the defence to Saydee, who was unable to find a cross across the box with players waiting.

Pompey's pressure eventually paid off when O’Mahony ignited the Fratton Park crowd with a goal.

Murphy crossed the ball into a dangerous area from the left and O’Mahony was able to get across a defender and direct a glancing header into the bottom right corner of the net.

Oxford hit back when Sibley found some space just outside the box and saw a gap, firing down to keeper Nicolas Schmid’s left and celebrating in front of the jubilant travelling fans.

The home side then reapplied the pressure, having two efforts scrambled off the line by Oxford defenders shortly after.

Minutes later, substitute Siriki Dembele was played through on goal with just Cumming to beat but shot high and wide.

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent:

“I’m really disappointed with the result. We came here with a game plan and I thought it worked for large parts, we looked likely to get a second goal, but we just weren’t good enough to do that . We need to be better to win games.

“You do scratch your head as we had so many chances but couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net again.

"If you concede chances like we do towards that end of the pitch then you’ll come away not winning games.”

Oxford United boss Des Buckingham told BBC Radio Oxford:

“Of the nine games we played we knew this week was going be tough, so to pick up points is so good.

“We knew coming here the reaction they (Portsmouth) would try to give after Wednesday’s game (a 6-1 loss to Stoke). There was a wonderful atmosphere here and to get points on the road is always good.

“I was really happy with our ability to match a really good Portsmouth side today, physically and more. The players that came on too made a good impact.”