Hayden Carter's injury-time header secured a point for Blackburn in a 1-1 draw against fellow Championship strugglers Portsmouth at Ewood Park.

The defender's header cancelled out Connor Ogilvie's opener for the visitors, who took the lead with 10 minutes to go in what had been a scrappy encounter in Lancashire.

Neither team could take a significant control of the match and there was little quality to speak of - highlighted by the fact Ogilvie's opener came from the game's first shot on target in the 81st minute.

It was a first draw in five games for Rovers' new interim boss Michael O'Neill and stopped a run of successive defeats.

The point was also Pompey's first in three matches after back-to-back losses in what was also John Mousinho's 150th league game in charge.

Portsmouth stayed in 19th place, one point and one position above Blackburn.

One point and one place separated these two at kick-off, and with both still looking over their shoulder in the battle to avoid the Championship trap door this season, it was clear neither were willing to give an inch.

The hosts saw an early chance slip by when Yuki Ohashi blazed over unmarked from 10 yards, and the high-and-wide effort set the tone for most of this lunchtime fixture.

Ohashi was in the thick of the action again just before the quarter-hour mark, and it took a crunching block from Ebou Adams to stop the Rovers forward getting his shot away from 12 yards.

Adams himself posed Pompey's best threat for much of the first half at the other end, heading Marlon Pack's flick-on just wide and then firing over after impressively muscling his way through the Blackburn midfield.

After the break, it was the hosts who had the best of the few chances created as Taylor Gardner-Hickman's low drive slipped just the wrong side of the woodwork for before Yuri Ribeiro lashed an effort just wide.

As the game moved inside the final 10 minutes, it seemed as though this one would go down as a scrappy goalless draw, before Ogilvie popped up to rifle home a strike from the edge of the area via a slight deflection off a Blackburn defender with six minutes left.

The game's first shot on target sparked the hosts into life for one last throw of the dice in the final five minutes, and they got their reward as former Portsmouth player Carter guided a header beyond Nicolas Schmid in the final few seconds.

While the point keeps both sides worryingly close to the bottom three, Rovers can at least celebrate being on the right side of a last-minute equaliser – having thrown away more points than any other team in the division from winning positions so far this campaign.

Pompey make the trip back to the South Coast now on a run of just one defeat in four away league games.

O'Neill take his side to Blackburn side to another team in relegation trouble - Oxford United on Wednesday, 11 March [19:45 GMT].

Portsmouth are at home to Swansea City a day earlier on 10 March [19:45].

Blackburn boss Michael O'Neill told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"The game probably tells you where both teams are, the seasons they have had, and what is at stake.

"We have to be pleased, given we were behind going into stoppage time. I thought we showed good character to keep going. We had the better chances, but we were a bit tense and nervous at times.

"We limited them to very little but we didn't take care of the ball enough to take control of the game. But if you can't win the game the key is not to lose it and we managed not to do that.

"We are disappointed not have had a penalty awarded to us at 0-0, too, and if he [Yuki Ohashi] makes good contact in the first few minutes it would have been a different situation.

"In terms of attitude the lads gave everything they should. The subs gave us energy when they came on, too."

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho:

"Blackburn had a really good chance early on but, apart from that, pretty cagey. We've given ourselves the opportunity to win the game and after we scored the goal, I thought we just completely threw it away.

"Stopped winning headers, stopped winning challenges, stopped winning second balls, let them back inside for the goal, dropped too deep, committed too many bodies forward at times. We didn't do any of the things we'd done so well for 85 minutes.

"There's that mentality switch when you go a goal ahead. I can accept us sitting deep but then we have to dominate underneath the ball, win our challenges, you've got to come out and win second balls.

"We managed the game horrifically. We managed it so, so poorly and ultimately we got what we deserved."