Pompey Academy ended their campaign in the Youth Alliance Cup by narrowly beating Plymouth at Copnor Road. The hosts went into the final group stage contest already knowing that they were unable to reach the knockout stages. But they finished with a victory, as Tayo Singerr scored from the spot after Jermaine Osifo was brought down in the box by Jensen Ireland. Lead professional development phase coach Sam Hudson: “The result was obviously pleasing, but the performance was pretty poor from us. We had quite a few of our younger academy kids in the starting line up. “It was probably on a par with what we saw in the first half at Swindon the previous week. It was a similar theme in terms of not tracking runners or duelling properly. “We were finding it hard to make our mark on the game and there just wasn’t enough pressure on the ball. “Plymouth played forward with real purpose – sometimes they went very direct and targeted the space down our left. “They had around 50 final third entries and with us not blocking crosses, it led to them having a lot of shots. “Although they didn’t get one on target until around the hour mark, on another day they probably would have scored two or three. “When we did win the ball back, we weren’t particularly good with it and the boys weren’t passing it between themselves. “On one of the rare attacks we did have, though, Jermaine got down the left and won a penalty that Tayo converted. It was very much a smash and grab. “There was an improvement from us after the break and it was more even in terms of overall attempts. We countered and held the ball up better. “We still struggled out of possession, though, and would have counted ourselves lucky to have drawn the game, let alone win it. “We’re going to need some of the fighting spirit that was on display from us when we face Leeds in the FA Youth Cup. “But we also really have to get back to where we were a few weeks ago with our duelling and pressing.” Pompey: Jake Rhodes (Allen 46); Aston Sizer, Reggie Buckland, Cody Howard, Ben Phillipson; Chinedu Agu, Michael Ani (Konsah 46 (Fraser Thomas 85)),Jermaine Osifo, Jablonski; Connor May, Tayo Singerr
