Pathetic Pompey sink to a new FA Cup low
Wednesday, 19th Nov 2014 23:33 by pompey-fans.com staff

Pompey's sinking season reached new depths on Wednesday night when they crashed out of the FA Cup in a replay away to Conference side Aldershot.

A scrappy 80th-minute Mark Molesley goal was all it took to knock out Pompey and leave them with what many will see as one of the most embarrasing results in their history. It came after the Blues had spurned numerous early chances to kill off the tie before allowing the Shots to gradually take control.

Afterwards manager Andy Awford said he was as angry as he had ever been and vowed to attack the loan market to bring new faces in where he could, saying no-one who had played deserved to keep their place.

Fans expressed their anger at another dismal away result, which came just four days after their 3-0 surrender at Plymouth.

Pompey might have killed off the tie early on, with Jack Whatmough, Ricky Holmes and Paul Robinson all going close. Aldershot were not without their own chances and Paul Jones had to be alert on more than one occasion.

A Jed Wallace volley was superbly tipped away by Phil Smith and then Holmes almost gave Pompey the lead just before the break.

They'd been the better side by some distance before the break but never reached the same heights after the break and, as the game wore on, didn't seem to have the appetite to react to Aldershot's increasing possession and intensity.

Molesley should have buried a header but put it wide but the tide was turning and when Aldershot took the lead with 10 minutes left, you couldn't say the warning signs hadn't been there.

The goal was a scrappy one - a corner led to a game of pinball in the six-yard box and Molsley was there, a yard out, to poke it past Alex Wynter's attempts to keep it out.

The Blues found some new urgency after that as Awford replaced Craig Westcarr and Ryan Taylor with Patrick Agyemang and Miles Storey. The latter stung Smith's palms with one near-post effort but the keeper had little else to do.

And when Nigel Atangana took too long to get the ball out from under his feet when played in on goal in the final minute of four added on, Pompey's hopes of a first FA Cup win since April 2010 were gone for another year.

Now, Morecambe at home on Saturday is a massive game for under-pressure Awford and his under-pressure team. Nothing less than a win, and a decent performace to go with it, will do.

Pompey: Jones; Wynter, Robinson, Whatmough (Chorley 76), Shorey; Wallace, Atangana, Hollands, Holmes; Westcarr (Storey 82), Taylor (Agyemang 82). Subs not used: Poke, Butler, Ertl, Close

Referee: Stuart Attwell

Attendance: 5,374 (1,238 Pompey fans)