Quinn and Kempson on target for Blues
Pompey secured their place in the third round of the Women’s FA Cup with a 2-0 victory over Cardiff at Furze Lane.
And the Blues will now look to cause an upset when they travel to Super League Two side Aston Villa on Sunday, February 7.
Ini Umotong had the ball in the back of the net early on against the Bluebirds, only to be denied by the officials.
But Lucy Quinn did break the deadlock on 18 minutes, thumping a free-kick into the top corner after Umotong had been fouled.
The hosts continued to dominate and Umotong’s long-range effort flew narrowly over before Sarah Kempson narrowly failed to connect with another Quinn free-kick.
They did double their advantage early in the second half, however, with Kempson collecting Nadine Bazan’s pass and coolly slotting home.
And Pompey comfortably saw out the closing stages to knock out their Premier League Southern Division rivals.
Blues boss Perry Northeast said: “I’m really pleased with all the girls because they executed the game-plan perfectly.
“At this stage of the competition we couldn’t have asked for a much tougher tie, so it’s great that we’ve gone through to the next stage.
“We prepared well for the game and I was delighted to see that our performance matched the result.
“Now we’ll be the underdogs when we go to Aston Villa, but it’s a test that we can relish.
“All the pressure will be on them, but we’ll have a strategy that we believe can lead to us causing a bit of an upset.
“I’ve said before that some of our players could compete at a higher level – well now’s the time for them to prove that.
“We want to be facing sides of a high calibre on a regular basis, so it’s a great opportunity for us to show what we can do.”
Pompey: Beazley; Bazan, Rutherford, Bloomfield (Sherwood 70), Taylor; Kempson, Clark, Sievwright, Quinn; Hillier (Frampton 46), Umotong
Subs not used: Atkinson, Stephens, George