A remarkable comeback from the brink of death - now brilliant Portsmouth return to the Championship

Football’s kinder souls regarded Pompey with pity, others sneered and ridiculed, mockingly waving £10 notes and revelling in their demise until karma brutally bit back.

Pompey departed the Championship in April 2012 as English football’s black sheep, a financially shambolic club reduced to sleeping in the gutter and looking longingly up at the stars they once populated.

Now, 12 years later, they’re back.

Conor Shaughnessy’s 89th minute header against Barnsley completed a late, late comeback by John Mousinho’s men to earn a 3-2 success, promotion and the League One title.

Up until the 83rd minute, the Blues were losing hope of settling promotion on the evening, with Christian Saydee representing their fifth and final substitute as they trailed 2-1.

And it was the former Bournemouth youngster who inspired the leveller, driving into the box and being brought down by John McAtee to earn a penalty.

With seven minutes remaining, Colby Bishop’s spot kick hauled them level for the second time in the match and suddenly Fratton Park believed.

Earlier, Kusini Yengi had cancelled out Devante Cole’s 9th-minute opener in a lightening start, yet the hosts were nervy, edgy, struggling for fluency as they chased the point they required.

Yet after Bishop’s leveller this remarkable Pompey side was not finished yet and Marlon Pack’s right-wing corner was met by the header of the towering Shaughnessy and it was 3-2.

Some fans invaded the pitch a little prematurely, while there were eight minutes of time added on to negotiate, but the Blues safely saw their way home.

It means Pompey return to the Championship with the League Two title, the Checkatrade Trophy and now the League One crown. A healthy haul of silverware from the most testing times in their 126-year history.

During their exile, the fallen Blues have, understandably, endured regular chants of ‘You’re not famous anymore’ from opposition fans revelling in the eye-catching demise.

Well, over the next few days, this eternally proud football club will now occupy many footballing headlines across the sporting media - finally for the right reasons.

That’s 94 points with two matches remaining, the century remains in their sights, but for now let’s enjoy the present.

The ever-loyal Fratton faithful have suffered the agony of witnessing the once Premier League stalwarts plummeting to 90th in the Football League and threatened with expulsion to the non-league, firstly in the High Court and then by Richie Barker.

Indeed, it has largely been a lonely existence, attracting little sympathy from outsiders and the footballing brethren, not a wet eye in the house, irrespective of the lengthy procession of wholly unsuitable owners who considerably pre-dated today’s villains and scoundrels.

Let’s not forget Pompey left the Championship with a 10-point deduction, drowning in debts of £59.5m and condemned to administration for the second time in two years, with an essential fire sale required to remove every senior player from the wage bill and prevent liquidation.

Meanwhile, Balram Chainrai possessed a charge over Fratton Park, while the club didn’t own a training ground, later forced into a nomadic existence, using St John’s College playing fields, Eastney Barracks and South Downs College among others.

How times have changed. Rescued from liquidation by fan ownership, consisting of £2.35m raised by the Pompey Supporters Trust and £1.55m from high-net worths, the first stage of the ascent was completed in May 2017 with the League Two title.

The baton was subsequently passed to Tornante and, for six campaigns, it had been a sorry tale of woe involving two play-off semi-final eliminations, choking as Christmas’ league leaders and, heartbreakingly, surrendering strong promotion positions at the season’s end.

Now they have overseen that Championship return, headed brilliantly by Rich Hughes and John Mousinho and the management team.

The likes of Marlon Pack, Colby Bishop, Sean Raggett and perhaps now match-winner Conor Shaughnessy will one day become deserved additions to Pompey’s Hall of Fame, of that there is no doubt.

Not disparaging the contributions of their team-mates, of course. This has been a squad accomplishment, coping with huge injury problems to rack up win after win in a brilliant unbeaten 18-match run since January.

And Pompey are back in the Championship.