A first half header by Mark Hughes was enough to knock Pompey out of the Carling Cup in the opening stage of the competition against League Two Barnet at Fratton Park.
They were one of six Championship clubs that fell at the first hurdle on the night against lower league opposition (Ipswich Town, Derby County, Barnsley, Coventry City and Hull City were the others).
In a game played in front of less than 5,000 fans The Bees deserved their victory against a lacklustre Pompey team.
Fans were left wondering if there had been many worse Pompey performances than this one. Defeat to Leyton Orient at home in the FA Cup under the stewardship of Graham Rix springs to mind as an obvious choice but there can't be many more.
Pompey's lack of playing resources was highlighted once again with Hermann Hreidarsson (Iceland) and Tal Ben Haim (Israel) away with their countries on international duty, Steve Cotterill named a substitutes bench of just three players.
Liam Lawrence returned from injury to make his first competitive appearance of the season and took over the captain's armband from David Norris. Christian Dailly and Stephen Henderson started their first competitive games for the Club.
Pompey began the match in a lively fashion but their performance dropped off sharply mid-way through the first half as Barnet caused the defence all sorts of problems.
Barnet exploited the pace of their forward line, Izale McCleod in particular stood out, and Pompey's inability to deal with balls over the top, down the line and through the middle. Lawrie Sanchez the Barnet manager is a shrewd character.
Pompey conceded a large number of corners in the first half - possibly six - and it was from a corner which wasn't cleared properly that Mark Hughes popped up to score what turned out to be the winning goal with a header.
It was nothing more than Barnet deserved. They had the ball in the net a second time before the break but the 'goal' was disallowed for offside.
Pompey's main threats at goal came from set-pieces and two wayward headers - one from Kitson and one from Mokoena - were the closest they came to hitting the target. Joel Ward with a volley that went way-off target in to the Milton End was the only other notable attempt by Pompey during the first half.
Stephen Henderson made some good one-on-one saves to keep Pompey in the game.
HT: Portsmouth 0-1 Barnet
After the break Pompey eventually picked up the pace and looked livelier but were unable to equalise.
Steve Cotterill made his two outfield changes bringing on Kanu for Rocha and Williams for Lawrence, who looked short of match fitness. It was the Australian youngster's home competitive debut. Lawrence passed the captain's armband to David Norris.
Pompey's main threat looked to be from set-pieces and it was Greg Halford who came closest to equalising with a powerful header that the Barnet goalkeeper saved on the goal line.
One of the main tactics in the second half appeared to be to play the ball long from the back, either directly from Henderson or through Halford and Mokoena. It was what I imagine playing football League Two style is about with some of the big, fast players who play in that division.
As Pompey searched for something from the game Barnet were able to exploit gaps that opened up and it was only due to some more good work by Henderson that kept them at bay.
With three minutes of added time played referee Mr Sheldrake blew the final whistle sending Barnet through to the next round and their pocket of noisy fans on the Milton End in to raptures.
FT: Portsmouth 0-1 Barnet
Final Thoughts
This was a very disappointing result for Pompey but nothing should be taken away from Barnet who deserved their victory.
Pompey, for whatever reason, played below par. Steve Cotterill will be trying to understand what went wrong before Saturday's Championship encounter with Brighton.
Was it poor tactics? Certainly there is an element of that, the second half approach to the game was predicated on launching long balls forward and Barnet rarely struggled to deal with them.
Is the lack of squad numbers having an influence over the way players play? Who knows but playing to avoid cards and injuries might be something the players had in the back of their minds.
Tiredness? Certainly, Liam Lawrence looked jaded just before he came off and he hadn't been firing on all cylinders. The team didn't struggle in the previous game against Middlesbrough, finished strongly and most of them featured in this game. Tiredness this early in the season however cannot be an excuse.
Apathy? No, but it was a strange evening. The crowd was very small and the swathes of empty seats around the ground gave this more of a pre-season friendly feel than that of a competitive cup-tie. Levels of ticket prices do seem to have deterred people from attending.
Atmosphere at football matches is a two-way thing: the players need to raise the spirits of the crowd through their endeavours on the pitch and the fans will respond accordingly. Sometimes the spark starts with the crowd. Unfortunately, neither party played its part last night and the atmosphere remained pretty flat throughout.
There were some positives to take from the game. Stephen Henderson made some good saves in both halves of the match although he also made a couple of minor errors that on another day would have been punished. However, he played well and the signs are promising. Liam Lawrence getting 70 minutes under his belt is another positive but there is still much more to come from the Repulic of Ireland international.
Portsmouth team versus Barnet: Stephen Henderson, Aaron Mokoena, Greg Halford, Ricardo Rocha, Joel Ward, Christian Dailly, Hayden Mullins, Liam Lawrence, David Norris, Luke Varney, Dave Kitson. Substitutes: Jamie Ashdown, Ryan Williams and Kanu.
Attendance: 4,464 there was a small but vocal following who travelled down from North London for the game who went home happy.
Pompey MOTM: difficult to award this with such a poor showing.
Next up for Pompey: Brighton and Hove Albion in the Championship on Saturday August 13th, kick-off 3PM at Fratton Park.
Source for Pompey team information and attendance figure: www.portsmouthfc.co.uk
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