A Pompey team best described as experimental suffered the Blues' first defeat of pre-season, going down 2-1 away to new National League premier side Sutton.
Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain's late strike was one of the bright spots on an afternoon when plenty of fringe players got a chance to impress Paul Cook but few took it.
Eight minutes had passed when Sutton took the lead, Roarie Deacon finishing after Pompey failed to deal with a cross by Dan Spence from the right-hand side.
Bedsente Gomis doubled the lead just after the half-hour mark when he headed in a right-sided corner, with Pompey's marking drawing a few questions from the visiting fans.
Pompey did look more settled in the second half but showed few signs of being able to fight back and avoid a loss.
It was almost all change with 20 minutes as nine Pompey subs appeared. This transformed Pompey and they bossed the final 15-20 minutes.
Theo Widdrington, Carl Baker and Gary Roberts all went close before Oxlade-Chamberlain converted Baker's cross with nine minutes left.
Boss Cook said afterwards he had learned something from the game.
He told the club website: 'It was a tough test for us. It shows that you’ve always got to be on your mettle. All of our young lads think they should be in the team and sometimes you need games like that as a little reminder that they’ve got a long way to go.'
POMPEY: Bass, Sessegnon (Talbot, 69 mins), Burgess (Whatmough, 63 mins), Barton (Widdrington, 69 mins), Haunstrup (Stevens, 69 mins), Close (Rose, 69 mins), May (Doyle, 69 mins), Tollitt (Baker, 69 mins), Chaplin (Oxlade-Chamberlain, 69 mins), Lalkovic (Roberts, 69 mins), Main (Hunt, 69 mins). Subs Not Used: Crowe, Bradbury.
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