Portsmouth spoiled Lincoln City's second-tier homecoming after a 65-year absence by condemning the Imps to defeat in their first game at Sincil Bank since being promoted to the Championship.

Teenage Chelsea loanee Ryan Kavuma-McQueen slotted in his first goal in senior football to put Pompey ahead before Adrian Segecic doubled the advantage soon after with a powerfully struck free-kick from the edge of the box.

Reeco Hackett hit back from the penalty spot before the break after Zak Swanson was punished for handball as he attempted to block a shot from Adam Reach.

But Ebou Adams came off the bench to score a thumping effort from 25 yards, putting the result beyond doubt against a Lincoln side that very nearly set-up a tense finish when Rob Street had a deflected effort loop off the crossbar in stoppage time.

Lincoln's American backer Ron Fowler, the former co-owner of Major League Baseball side San Diego Padres who took a controlling interest in the Imps when they were on their way to promotion last season, was among the sold-out crowd of 10,545 at the newly rebranded ProAmpac Stadium on a milestone day for the Imps.

The Imps' head coaching double act of Chris Cohen and Tom Shaw tweaked their side after the opening-day defeat at Middlesbrough, with Hackett coming in for Ryley Towler, while Pompey made three changes after being overcome 3-1 by Queens Park Rangers.

Kavuma-McQueen was among the trio to come in and he was quick to make an impact, finding the bottom corner to open the scoring with Pompey's first chance after Lincoln had gone close a number of times as they made a frantic start

Reach had a free-kick tipped over the bar by Nicholas Schmid, who then denied Ben House when the forward was through for a one-on-one chance in the fifth minute.

This misses soon proved costly, with 17-year-old Kavuma-McQueen breaking the deadlock, while a slight deflection helped Segecic add a second after Abu Kamara was brought down just outside the area.

Lincoln - who last lost a league game at home more than 10 months ago when beaten by Exeter City in early October - kept to their energetic attacking approach despite the double blow and were deserving of the confidently dispatched Hackett penalty which got them back into the game just after the half-hour mark.

Lincoln hopes of comeback result took a heavy blow when Adams added a long-range third for Portsmouth.

And while the woodwork was brushed by the hosts in the final stages, there would be no late drama to reinvigorate the party-like atmosphere in Lincoln.

The human race was still eight years away from setting foot on the moon when Lincoln City last hosted a match at this level in 1961.

And the step up to the Championship this season has been a giant leap for a club that was promoted from third tier despite working with one of the more modest budgets in League One.

The Imps forked out more than £1m on a transfer fee for the first time when they signed Romanian Andrei Coubis earlier in the summer, and it is expected that they will once again pay a club-record sum to bring in Danish striker Mikkel Ladefoged from Swedish side Vasteras SK.

There have been generations of Lincoln fans who have known nothing but the outer reaches of the English Football League and beyond in the club's six-and-a-half decades away from the second tier.

Only 10 years ago the club was still battling to get back out of the depths of non-league football, while less than a quarter of a century has passed since Imps fans saved them from financial run when the club went into administration in 2002.

The Championship is a level that Lincoln have spent just 12 seasons at in more than a century, and back-to-back defeats to start the campaign has made for a jarring return.

Lincoln City head coach Tom Shaw told BBC Radio Lincolnshire:

"We are disappointed with the result on what was a really big day for Lincoln City Football Club.

"We started the game superbly well and spent seven or eight minutes in and around their goal with a flurry of set-pieces and it looked like we were a real threat.

"Then we got a proper sucker punch. We will be really annoyed when we watch that back as a group because it was so preventable.

"The second goal probably knocked the wind out of everyone's sails a little bit, but I was very pleased with how we responded at that point. I thought the lads found a few gears.

"The first-half performance was positive and the second half we just felt we petered out a little."

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent:

"You have to take every performance in context. And in the context of where we have been over the past couple of weeks and pre-season, where we have struggled to pick up results and struggled to put together performances, that was a very good day, a really good result and a really good performance.

"Today was a good combination in that we were very good defensively – were very solid and stood up to a massive test for the most part – and also when we got the ball down we played and did that pretty well too.

"There was a couple of things that really pleased me – the reaction to going a goal up, because we didn't fall apart like we did the last couple of weeks, our reaction to conceding and the second half was a very professional performance."