Pompey Academy drew 3-3 with Cardiff in their final Professional Development League Cup group stage match on a stormy south coast afternoon. The conditions were in their favour before the break and Connor May (pictured) finished at the second attempt to open the scoring. He then arrived at the near post to convert a corner before Jayden Keteku raced away to make it 3-0 with a neat finish. But the visitors hit back with three quick goals of their own following the restart and the Blues had to remain resolute after Reggie Buckland was dismissed for a second bookable offence. Lead professional development phase coach Sam Hudson said: “It was a game that had everything and the conditions certainly played a big part. “We started on the front foot because we knew that we needed to win by four or five goals to have a chance of progressing from our group. “But our opponents then managed to start dominating the ball, without causing us too many problems. “They pegged us back a little bit and we were struggling to find a response to that, especially on our left side. “We got a goal out of nothing from a counter-attack, though, then scored two more, while Reggie Buckland headed against the bar just before the break. “That clinical edge was just what we’d been looking for, but we knew that we’d have to face the wind in the second half. “The tables turned and around 20 minutes after the restart, the game was level at 3-3, which included a goal that was straight from a corner. “We then had a needless and disappointing red card, so it was going to be an uphill challenge after that. “But credit to the 10 players remaining because they were compact and limited Cardiff to very little, while creating some half-chances of our own. “The last moment of the game saw Jake Rhodes making a fantastic save on his debut to make sure we didn’t lose. “It was an end-to-end affair and the biggest factor was definitely the wind, but ultimately we were happy to finish with a point.” Pompey: Conal McDermott (Jake Rhodes 71);Michael Ani (Aston Sizer 46), Cody Howard, Reggie Buckland, Ben Phillipson; Jermaine Osifo, Luke Staight, Jayden Keteku (Jablonski 46), Chinedu Agu; Connor May (Fraser Thomas 85), Tayo Singerr
