It was through the lottery of penalties that Pompey were knocked out of the Hampshire Cup at Folland Sports.
But Sam Hudson believes they can have no complaints after making a third round exit against Wessex League opposition.
Harry Clout came off the bench to grab a stoppage-time leveller, but the Blues were beaten 5-4 in the shoot-out.
It was a side made up entirely of academy players at the Arrow Arena and Hudson felt their performance was lacking.
Pompey’s lead professional development phase coach said: “It’s obviously disappointing to get knocked out of the cup and it was always going to be decided by fine margins.
“Neither side offered much quality and although we had a lot of the ball, we didn’t really hurt them at all.
“We made life harder for ourselves by playing at a slower tempo and our touches in the final third were poor.
“I was also disappointed with our duelling and we didn’t lay a glove on them, which isn’t what we want to see from a Pompey team.
"It doesn’t matter who you’re playing against – if the intensity isn’t there out of possession, then you want get any reward."
“We’ve previously seen teams – this season and last – show that they can compete with men’s sides and be physical.
“It doesn’t matter who you’re playing against – if the intensity isn’t there out of possession, then you want get any reward.
“A penalty shoot-out was probably the right way to end that tie and unfortunately, we came out on the wrong side of it.”
Hudson felt that goalscorer Clout emerged with the most credit after coming on during the second half.
He said: “I thought Harry was our brightest spark and probably the player with the most quality on either team.
“He was limited to 20 minutes after coming back from injury and broke their back-line on a few occasions with some delicate passes.
“His goal was probably a cross and he’s perhaps fortunate with that, but sometimes you make your own luck.
“He gave us that little bit of quality that had been missing from our performance during the previous 70 minutes.”