Two Ryan Williams goals have given Portsmouth a 2-0 half-time lead over the Blues at Portman Road.
Town boss Paul Lambert made one change with Andre Dozzell returning in the three-man central midfield, alongside Jon Nolan with Alan Judge ahead of them, having missed last week’s 2-1 win at Plymouth as he was suspended having reached five bookings.
Brett McGavin dropped to the bench, while striker Aaron Drinan was also among the subs having recovered from his hamstring injury.
Portsmouth were unchanged from the team which beat Peterborough 2-0 at Fratton Park on League One last weekend with winger Michael Jacobs back from a knee injury and on the bench alongside ex-Town striker Ellis Harrison.
Fans were back at Portman Road, dotted around the stands aside from the Sir Bobby, for the first time since March with the game watched by 2,000 season ticket holders allocated their tickets via the ballot.
For the first time in 280 days the Blues players were cheered on to the pitch as they made their way from the tunnel.
Prior to the whistle both teams took a knee in support of Black Lives Matter to warm applause from the Town support.
Even with such a relatively small crowd the game seemed to have greater intensity virtually from the off.
The first serious action came in the eighth minute when Town lone striker Kayden Jackson chased a ball down the right into the area. Keeper Craig Macgillivray came off his line and the two reached the ball at the same time and the ball went out of play.
Jackson and the Blues fans made an ambitious penalty claim but referee Thomas Bramall opted to award a free-kick against Town, which seemed third in his list of possible decisions.
A minute later, Blues keeper Dai Cornell was forced into the game’s first big save, the Welshman getting down and across to his left to push John Marquis’s low curling shot from just outside the area wide.
Pompey were presenting the greater threat in the opening minutes, forcing Town into regular mistakes as they tried to pass out from the back and winning a number of corners which the Blues managed to repel.
On 16 Ronan Curtis, a scorer in the last two matches between the sides, was very fortunate to escape a booking for sliding in on Jackson well after the ball had gone, much to the annoyance of the Blues’ support. Two minutes later the Irishman fouled Dozzell on halfway and again managed to keep out of referee Bramall’s book.
Curtis might have made it three in three against Town on 22 when Marcus Harness out-battled Mark McGuinness on the edge of the area. The former Burton Albion man fed Curtis in space but the one-time Derry City man screwed his shot well over.
Town were next to threaten in the 25th minute. Dobra, playing wide on the right for Town with Jack Lankester on the left, tricked his way into the box from a Jackson pass before hitting a shot across Macgillivray which the keeper blocked with his feet.
But four minutes later, Pompey took the lead. Harness crossed from the right, Marquis, in acres of space, tapped back first time to Ryan Williams and the Australian international slammed his first goal of the season into the roof of the net. It was a very poor goal to concede from Town’s perspective if well-worked and neat from the visitors’.
Town suffered a further blow in the 33rd minute when Jon Nolan was forced off with an injury and McGavin took over alongside Dozzell in the deeper-lying midfield roles. Nolan was playing only his third game after returning from a groin problem.
Pompey probably should have made it 2-0 in the 36th minute when Lee Brown cut back from the left and skipper Tom Naylor shot wide as he broke unchecked to the edge of the box when he should at least have hit the target.
Two minutes later, Blues skipper Luke Chambers headed weakly through to Macgillivray following a Ward cross from the left.
Town, with Dobra having moved into the middle and Judge to the right, were starting to see a lot of the ball and in the 41st minute Alan Judge cut in from the left and hit a shot which Macgillivray was forced to punch away.
In the final scheduled minute of the half, Pompey doubled their lead. The ball was crossed from the right, Curtis nodded back into the box and Williams turned home his second of the afternoon and the campaign unchallenged.
Portman Road rang with boos only 45 minutes after fans’ return following nine months away with the Blues appearing set for their third successive home defeat.
Pompey’s goals had both looked all too easy and they might well have had a third had Naylor hit the target.
At the other end, as has been a familiar story, Town had had a lot of possession but had rarely threatened with Dobra’s direct running with the ball into the box having presented their biggest danger and their one real chance.
However, the Blues might not be totally out of it as yet having come back from two goals down to 2-2 in the FA Cup tie between the sides recently, only to unluckily lose 3-2 in extra-time.
Town: Cornell, Chambers (c), Woolfenden, McGuinness, Ward, Dozzell, Nolan (McGavin 33), Dobra, Lankester, Judge, Jackson. Subs: Holy, Nsiala, Kenlock, Bennetts, Drinan, Hawkins.
Portsmouth: Macgillivray, Johnson, Brown, Naylor (c), Whatmough, Williams, Marquis, Curtis, Cannon, Harness, Raggett. Subs: Bass, Close, Harrison, Nicolaisen, Pring, Jacobs, Hiwula. Referee: Thomas Bramall (Sheffield).