Sam Hudson reacts as Portsmouth Academy blow Youth Alliance Cup opportunity
Portsmouth Under-18s will not qualify from the group stage of the Youth Alliance Cup after a heartbreaking 5-3 defeat by Exeter City on Saturday.
The Grecians scored twice in stoppage time at Copnor Road [2 November] to deny Pompey a point, though only a win would have kept Sam Hudson’s side in with a fighting chance of progressing.
Cody Howard and Jermaine Osifo twice put the Blues in front, with Beau Mullins making it 3-3 after Exeter turned the game around, but they eventually had enough in the tank to return to Devon with the crucial win.
Hudson told Portsmouth’s official website after the defeat [4 November]: “We looked really good in the first 30 minutes and probably should have been out of sight.
“But we spent too much time chasing after the opposition following the break and eventually we got tired and some errors started creeping in.
“Because we knew that a draw would not be enough for us to go through, we just went hell for leather and got players forward. There was a chance for us to win and it would have been worthwhile, but Exeter scored straight from a corner before a back-pass was intercepted and [then] they got another.”
Portsmouth Academy look to return to previous superb form
In Group F of the Youth Alliance Cup, Pompey now join Bristol Rovers in bowing out of the competition with a game to spare.
Plymouth Argyle, Newport County and Exeter now battle it out for a chance to enter the knockout stages.
The Blues can make amends against Exeter on 16 November as they meet at Copnor Road once again, this time in the league, after facing Forest Green Rovers this coming Saturday in Gloucestershire [9 November].
Until conceding a last-gasp equaliser to draw with Newport on 26 October, Pompey had looked on course for a fifth straight victory.
Hudson’s starlets clearly have the talent and must now find that consistency to deliver it more frequently, having recovered from a tough start to the season.
But for development and competition purposes, they cannot let themselves slip back into a disappointing rut and the coming weeks will be an important test in mentality.
In other Portsmouth news, David Norris discusses how he sees the hierarchy of Pompey’s goalkeepers.
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