| Portsmouth 2 Aston Villa 4 |
Those who turned up to Fratton Park optimistic would have had a change of tune as soon as the team news was announced on the tannoy.
Avram Grant had made his priorities crystal clear with his team selection last night. Our fifth and sixth choice strikers up front, a midfield that had zero creativity and a makeshift defence to see how Vanden Borre coped with pace and if Ben-Haim was a capable centre back.
On the other hand, Martin O'Neill chose to field a very strong Villa side that included five England internationals as well as his strongest defence. It looked like the writing was on the wall from the start.
Yet, with a massive stroke of luck, Pompey had taken the lead after Petrov somehow managed to slice a corner into his own net. Yet as soon as the "Wembl-er-ley" chants began, they were silenced after Pompey's porous defence allowed Heskey to stroll through and equalise just two minutes later.
Villa then took control of the game as Pompey struggled to deal with Villa's wing play and then Vanden Borre made the mistake of letting Milner go free to curl in a shot that Begovic could do nothing about, and from then on it was dire.
The midfield of Belhadj, Hughes, Brown and Yebda struggled to pass the ball to each other and there was a distinct lack of communication from a team who had just been thrown together.
Come the second half and it was the same story bar a spell of pressure after the restart that didn't really result in any serious or prolonged threat on Brad Guzan's goal. Yet, whenever Villa went forward you always felt Pompey would concede, especially as Hreidarsson and Vanden Borre were really struggling to cope with Stewart Downing and Ashley Young on the flanks.
So it was no surprise when Downing arrived on the end of a cross for the third goal that should have seen Villa through comfortably as the home side showed no sign at all of getting back into the game.
Yet, somehow, Kanu had given the Fratton faithful something to cling on to with a few minutes remaining after tapping in a scrappy goal that was met with protests from the Villa defence and Guzan. The Nigerian had come on as a sub for Webber and once again showed that he had something to offer the team.
Yet any hopes of a late flurry were immediately extinguished when the Pompey defence yet again failed to deal with Villa's wingers and they left Ashley Young with plenty of space to fire in a deflected shot over the bemused Begovic which saw Fratton Park empty quickly, with only the diehard, core support to see the game out to the bitter end.
I'm disappointed that Grant selected such a weak side to play against a team that will challenge the big four this season. I do feel if Hart was still in charge then we might have fared much better as he took this competition seriously.
But I suppose we have to look at the bigger picture. Even if we did beat Villa and book a place in our first ever League Cup semi-final we would have had to face even tougher opposition over two legs, which we probably would have lost anyway.
And then of course we have to keep our best players fit for one of the most important games of our Premier League tenure on Saturday. Everyone knows that only a win against Burnley wiil do and so it is imperative that Grant is able to select his strongest available side without any new injury concerns.
But if winning breeds confidence, then we could have done without this poor performance to look back on, no matter who took part.
Pompey Player Ratings
Asmir Begovic: 5 - Can't really be blamed for any of the goals.
Anthony Vanden Borre: 4 - Really struggled against the pace of Villa's wingers.
Younes Kaboul: 6 - Marshalled Agbonlahor well.
Tal Ben-Haim: 5 - Better at full back.
Hermann Hreidarsson: 5 - Tried to get forward but often pinned back by Villa's attack.
Richard Hughes (Wilson 85): 5 - Looked out of his depth.
Michael Brown: 6 - The best of our midfielders last night, which isn't saying much.
Hassan Yebda: 5 - Gave the ball away too much.
Nadir Belhadj: 6 - Tried to get forward.
John Utaka (Piquionne 76): 5 - Tried to use his pace to create something but to no avail.
Danny Webber (Kanu 65): 6 - Was impressive in places.
Substitutes
Jamie Ashdown
Marc Wilson (Hughes 85): N/A - Played in midfield for 5 minutes.
Hayden Mullins
Angelos Basinas
Kanu (Webber 65): 6 - Made a difference and scored.
Frederic Piquionne (Utaka 76): N/A - Missed a good chance with a header over.
Aruna Dindane |
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