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On a side note, does the Paint Trophy no longer exist in the eyes of the BBC, then?

Just got back from the game and whilst I was gutted at the penalty shoot-out, the better team went through on the night.

Portsmouth were well set up, very skilful and very energetic, closing us down and preventing us playing in midfield so our front men were totally isolated. I think we only had four attempts on goal all game and their keeper only had one save to make - from Sullivan who was a breath of fresh air when he came on.

Our defence played excellently - they had to or we would have been swamped - but there was very little in midfield or up front. Even the wingers showed very little until late on and they were generally dominated by their opposite fullbacks.

So my assessments for anyone who is interested are as follows:

Rice 8/10 - one superb save late in the second half, otherwise very tidy and good distribution
Tonge 7/10 - efficient defensively
Pearce 9/10 - was a rock at the back
Downes 9/19 - my MOTM, despite all their great approach play, Portsmouth had very few clear-cut chances because of the central defenders
Cruise 7/10 - good defensively but nothing much coming forward
Cameron 6/10 - would have got a poorer assessment but bucked his ideas up towards the end
Harding 4/10 - oh dear, he must be one of the poorest signings in many a long day. Totally outplayed in midfield and seemed overawed.
Lathrope 6/10 - tried his best to make up for lack of product from Harding but he'll never make a creative midfielder.
Chappell - 5/10 - outplayed by his opposite full back - very little impact
Benyon - 5/10 - nothing to work with but ran himself into the ground for the cause
Ball - 5/10 - totally lost with no service

Sullivan - 6/10 - looked likely when he came on

Referee - 8/10 - no howlers and tried to keep the game flowing

Crowd - Portsmouth 9/10, Torquay 6/10

All the Portsmouth pens were excellent and Rice had no chance. Manse blasted his way up into the family stand. Game over and yet another first round cup defeat.

Thanks modgull and all the others for the reports.

It did. There were live scores, just took a bit of finding.

who needs Wembley, it's a total dump anyway.

Modgull wrote:Just got back from the game and whilst I was gutted at the penalty shoot-out, the better team went through on the night.

Portsmouth were well set up, very skilful and very energetic, closing us down and preventing us playing in midfield so our front men were totally isolated. I think we only had four attempts on goal all game and their keeper only had one save to make - from Sullivan who was a breath of fresh air when he came on.

Our defence played excellently - they had to or we would have been swamped - but there was very little in midfield or up front. Even the wingers showed very little until late on and they were generally dominated by their opposite fullbacks.

So my assessments for anyone who is interested are as follows:

Rice 8/10 - one superb save late in the second half, otherwise very tidy and good distribution
Tonge 7/10 - efficient defensively
Pearce 9/10 - was a rock at the back
Downes 9/19 - my MOTM, despite all their great approach play, Portsmouth had very few clear-cut chances because of the central defenders
Cruise 7/10 - good defensively but nothing much coming forward
Cameron 6/10 - would have got a poorer assessment but bucked his ideas up towards the end
Harding 4/10 - oh dear, he must be one of the poorest signings in many a long day. Totally outplayed in midfield and seemed overawed.
Lathrope 6/10 - tried his best to make up for lack of product from Harding but he'll never make a creative midfielder.
Chappell - 5/10 - outplayed by his opposite full back - very little impact
Benyon - 5/10 - nothing to work with but ran himself into the ground for the cause
Ball - 5/10 - totally lost with no service

Sullivan - 6/10 - looked likely when he came on

Referee - 8/10 - no howlers and tried to keep the game flowing

Crowd - Portsmouth 9/10, Torquay 6/10

All the Portsmouth pens were excellent and Rice had no chance. Manse blasted his way up into the family stand. Game over and yet another first round cup defeat.

Think we've agreed on all the ratings there Modgull although a 4/10 for Harding is very generous!!

Well that was awful. Only thing that excited me about last night is when Pompey sell out for the League game. If last night is anything to go by they will be among the best fans I've ever seen down here!

Not all of it was awful, there were spells where we had Portsmouth camped in their own box. We also kept them from really troubling Ricey. Positives to be taken, just might have been nice to do an Argyle and be below our best (in fairness, we were playing promotion favourites Pompey, they played a Cheltenham who look like relegation candidates) but scrape a shootout win. They're celebrating on Twitter as though they've won the trophy already.

Matt.

By spells, do you mean the last 7 minutes of each half? Granted they rarely troubled Rice but that was more down to the two centre backs, who were outstanding all night long.

You could tell Manse was going to miss in the shootout too, he is not the sort to keep calm and go for a sidefooter or something.

Seems to be a mixed bag of match reports but I'm interested to know how the slightly changed team compared to the current first-eleven.
Those of you that went to the game... How do you think Cruise did? Was the back five better or worse with him rather than Nicho? How about attacks down the left, did he contribute much? What about Cameron over Bodin?
Also, how was the central midfield compared to usual?

I just remembered this morning that before the game started on Tuesday evening there was a mystery man warming up with the players. He was tall and fair headed. Early twenties (I think) and it wasn't Kurtis. Does anyone know who it was ?

Jack Deaman ?

I think Jack has dark hair and isn't that tall, but I could be wrong.

It was jack deaman

Thanks supergulls. Do the Youth Team have a home game on Saturday?