Real Betis hammered a Pompey side missing key players by five goals to one in a friendly at the Estadio Benito Villamarin tonight.
Liam Lawrence, Tal Ben-Haim, Hermann Hreidarsson, Erik Huseklepp and Marko Futacs are all on international duty whilst Benjani, Kanu and Aaron Mokoena were unavailable to travel to Spain.
That meant youngsters Lewis Tallack and Lewis Stockford started the game alongside the more experienced players such as Luke Varney, David Norris and Ricardo Rocha.
Things got off to the worst possible start as Ruben Castro curled the ball into the corner of the net from the edge of the box after just two minutes.
It was 2-0 after 18 minutes when Tallack made a rash challenge in the box and Jorge Molina slotted past Stephen Henderson from the spot.
The onslaught continued and Steve Cotterill's men were three down after 27 minutes when Jefferson Montero finished from a tight angle. The score stayed at 3-0 until the break although the hosts had dominated and tested Henderson further during the first half.
Sam Magri replaced Tallack at left back for the second half but couldn't help prevent the scoreline becoming even worse as Ezequiel hammered in an unstoppable fourth goal and then got another one when Henderson let his tame shot slip under his arms.
Jamie Ashdown replaced Henderson with minutes to go and saw his side grab a consolation goal as Varney fired home from the edge of the box with the last kick of the game.
So, it was the impressive Betis who lifted the Cirsa trophy as Pompey fans had to endure a miserable result in Seville. In honesty though, the result won't matter in context as Betis are likely to be far better than any Championship side that Pompey will play this season and there were many first team players missing who would have made a difference.
There was a more pressing issue today in terms of any permanent transfers having to be signed off by 11pm. It is expected that Jed Wallace's signing from Lewes will be completed and confirmed shortly but there will be no other arrivals or departures.
Finally, apologies to anyone attempting to view the messageboard tonight. It seems like fans of clubs who have been busy getting deals done today have overloaded the FootyMad servers and slowed them right down!
West Ham are one of those clubs doing deals on deadline day. Pompey will now have to play against the likes of Guy Demel and David Bentley come September 10th, and who would bet against Papa Bouba Diop finding the net against his former club.
Nobody, if tonight's friendly result is anything to go by.