Gill goal sees Blues down Crawley
Pompey Academy progressed to the knockout stages of the Youth Alliance Cup with a 1-0 victory over Crawley.
The match was an away fixture for the Blues, but a waterlogged pitch saw the tie switched to Furze Lane.
Substitute Lewis Gill (pictured) scored the only goal of the game, heading home Bradley Tarbuck’s free-kick to secure a quarter-final berth.
Academy coach Paul Hardyman said: “We won three of our four group games and drew the other, which is a pleasing record.
“Last season we reached the semi-finals of the competition, so hopefully we can go at least one step further this time around.
“But we wasted several good chances and probably should have won by more goals – we were let down by some poor finishing.
“Credit to Crawley who kept going, but they didn’t cause us too many problems. We were resolute at the back and the defence did a good job.
“I was particularly pleased for Lewis, who was making his first appearance of the season after breaking a bone in his foot during pre-season.
“He came on and scored the winning goal and that will do a lot for his confidence moving forward.”
Pompey: Bass; Haunstrup (May 75), Field, Smart, Medway (Davis 62); Rwakarambwe (Gill 71), Granger, Close (c), Nilsen; Tarbuck, Horsburgh