Boss hoping Blues can cause a shock at Bournemouth
Pompey are 1,000/1 outsiders to lift the Capital One Cup at Wembley in March.
But that does not mean Guy Whittingham is writing off Tuesday night’s first round clash at Bournemouth.
The Blues boss takes inspiration from Bradford, who shocked Wigan, Arsenal and Aston Villa to reach the final last term despite being in League Two.
But he is expecting a tough test against a Cherries side who beat Pompey 2-1 at the Goldsands Stadium in pre-season.
Whittingham said: “It’s an opportunity for us to go on a cup run and play some decent teams.
“We want to go as far as we can. It’s always nice to go on a cup run and look what happened to Bradford last season.
“But having said that, we know we’ve got a very difficult first game against Bournemouth.
“It was a massive achievement for Eddie Howe to get them promotion from where they were when he took over.
“They’re a Championship side and have improved their squad. They play good football and have a group of players who are used to playing that way.
“Eddie’s got a tried and trusted way of playing and it seems to work well at Bournemouth.”
Johnny Ertl will miss the tie, with Pompey’s skipper starting a three-match suspension following his red card in Saturday’s 4-1 league defeat to Oxford.
And Whittingham might make more changes to ensure more members of his squad stay fresh.
He said: “All the players had a decent amount of minutes on the pitch in pre-season and we have to keep that up.
“There will be one or two changes. Bournemouth will do the same and I’m sure every team in the country will do the same.
“We have to make sure that the players we’ve got here remain fit and get enough football.”