It is rare to go home after a defeat feeling reasonably content and positive, but plenty of Pompey fans will have done so after Reading’s 2-1 win the Capitol One Cup under the Fratton floodlights.
There may have been thoughts of what-might-have-been and reflections on how the Blues could now be looking a third-round tie against a Man City or a Southampton. But, unlike against Derby in the previous round, it wasn’t to be.
In many ways, it was as good a performance as the one seen in that first-round win over the Rams. Once again you wouldn’t have known there were two divisions between the sides, even when Reading improved in the latter stages and imposed themselves on the game in a way Pompey hadn’t allowed them to do earlier.
There was another great finish from Conor Chaplin — how he found the Fratton End net from the angle he did, few in the ground could fathom. And there were more excellent performances from a number of players, some who are already in Paul Cook’s league team and others who are trying, quite effectively as it goes, to force their way into it.
Chaplin will grab many of the headlines after his second notable Fratton goal in a fortnight but many others deserve praise in defeat too.
Adam Webster and Matt Clarke again paired up like a defensive duo who have been tackling these sort of opponents for years, Ben Close was another to belie his age with a tidy and mature display in midfield and Kyle Bennett gave a number of glimpses of talent which will surely be too much for many League Two defenders over the course of the season.
One bit of Bennett trickery midway through the first half, which set up a chance for Jayden Stockley which he stretched to meet but put wide, defies description. I’d need to see it again, and hope I will, to fully explain what he did to control a high ball and beat his man.
Brandon Haunstrup is another young player with an apparently-big future. He has slotted into these two cup games versus Championship opposition seamlessly, despite never having played for Pompey’s first team in the league, and not even playing much in pre-season. Enda Stevens, sitting this one out through suspension, ought to know his left-back spot is not guaranteed.
Paul Cook said after what was Pompey’s first defeat of the season he was delighted with the effort his players put in and happy with the way they had pushed Steve Clarke’s team all the way. And the reception given to the home players at the end of the game, which came shortly after Paul Jones had gone forward for a corner to ensure Reading were put under pressure until the bitter end, suggested the home crowd agreed with the manager.
The fans can see this is a squad packed with players which is desperate to succeed for them and for Cook, and one which possesses plenty of talent from front to back.
If they play like this week in week out in League Two, wins will outnumber defeats quite comfortably, I’d have thought - though last Saturday’s three-goal start given to Morecambe is perhaps a reminder to the team that they cannot and should not allow the levels seen against Derby and now against Reading to fall away in what some may consider to be easier games.
Morecambe came to Fratton treating it as a chance to make a name for themselves, and it’s not big-headed of any Pompey fan to think that plenty of other League Two teams will do the same. No-one will come here and roll over, you’d expect.
Thirty-seven minutes had passed when Chaplin sent Fratton into raptures with a goal from the tightest of angles after Ali Al-Habsi had sliced a clearance on the edge of his own area. It was Chaplin’s persistence that forced the error and his brilliance that got the ball in the net after being forced wide by the covering defender. Not a bad pair of attributes for a young forward.
Pompey deserved the lead, for they’d had the better an open, flowing game up to that point. But as against Derby, they found themselves pegged back as the second half wore on. It was a straightforward Reading attack that ended with Nick Blackman skipping into the area, cutting inside and shooting low past Paul Jones at his near post on 64 minutes. Where as, against the Rams, Pompey had come straight back at their visitors and regained the lead within a couple of minutes, this time they couldn’t regain control in the same way, despite another sterling effort from fans who didn’t let the noise levels drop all night.
With 10 minutes to go Garath McCleary poked in what proved the winner, popping up at the far post to put Pompey behind if not to silence the Fratton End.
The Blues kept plugging away and caused one or two alarms in Al-Habsi’s box in four minutes added on, but there was no way the violet-shirted visitors. Disappointment, then, at a cup exit, but certainly not disgrace.
Twice Pompey have matched Championship opponents and that ought to act as a spur to them in the league campaign and perhaps also in their bid to reach Wembley by Route B, the JP Trophy, in which they go to Exeter next week.
Pompey: Jones; Evans, Webster, Clarke, Haunstrup; Close, Hollands; McGurk (Dunne 79), Chaplin (Tollitt 83), Bennett (Tubbs 89); Stockley. Subs not used: Murphy, Burgess, Atangana, Roberts.
Referee: Gavin Ward
Attendance: 18,190 (2,082 away fans)
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