It was the start of busy week of cup action for Pompey players – both senior and junior.
And a draw with AFC Wimbledon at Fratton Park was enough to secure progress to the knockout stages of the Papa Johns Trophy.
Ronan Curtis’ opener was cancelled out by Ayoub Assal to ensure the hosts finished as runners-up, despite claiming a bonus point on penalties.
The academy side will now host Three Bridges at the same venue in the FA Youth Cup on Thursday evening, while the first team visit Hereford in the FA Cup the very next day.
It meant that Danny Cowley had to meticulously plan his starting line-up and substitutions and was satisfied to ultimately get the job done.
The Blues boss said: “We’re pleased with the outcome and aspects of our performance in the first half.
“In the opening 20 minutes we actually played really well, moving the ball quickly and exploiting their man-to-man defensive system.
"There were five substitutions made because we had 10 players that we wanted to share the game between."
“We created chances at will, but didn’t take more than one of them and weren’t as ruthless as we should have been in that period.
“There were five substitutions made because we had 10 players that we wanted to share the game between.
“We also couldn’t overuse the academy because they’ve got their own big cup game on Thursday that’s important for their development.
“Then we have our FA Cup tie on Friday evening, so it wasn’t an easy fixture to navigate our way through and we were almost playing into a hurricane wind in the second half!”
The shoot-out might not have made much difference to the outcome of Southern Group B, but Josh Oluwayemi made three saves to ensure it was won by Pompey.
Cowley said: “I was so pleased for him. He’s a great kid and comes in every single day with the right attitude and work ethic.
“He's got a big personality and also a brilliant mindset to drive not only his own performance, but also those around him.
“That’s not easy to do when you’re a young player who’s not playing regularly and it’s no surprise to me that he played the way he did.”