But even a school swot's exercise book would have seen more crosses than Pompey were able to provide for their exciting new forward combination during pre-season.

The service during the Community Shield defeat gave Pompey's new forward duo precious little to work with and coach Jordan admits width will be the key to the Crouch and Defoe pairing.

And although the rumours over the recruitment of Shaun Wright-Phillips have died down lately, Jerome Thomas has been added to the squad after joining on loan from Charlton.

Jordan said: 'It is a new partnership, but I don't think it's down to those individuals – it's down to the team to give them the service that they can get some success from.

'The team has got to realise the type of quality ball that we have to give them so that we can get the benefits of their ability.

'That is something we need to improve and it will – there is no danger of that.'

The Wembley formation saw Niko Kranjcar operating on the left flank, while Papa Bouba Diop was handed a role on the right flank in the absence of the injured Glen Little.

While the Senegalese midfielder did a decent job, he is certainly not a natural winger and left Pompey decidedly unbalanced.

Interestingly, even when John Utaka was thrown into the fray, he replaced Kranjcar on the left.

Jordan said: 'We went there with 18 players – there was nobody else.

'Of course it's important to get the crosses in, but it is the balls up to the front guys we need to work on.

'We can get the ball up to Peter and work from there and we can use the speed and alertness of Jermain Defoe.

'We can do better with the quality of our pass, but we also need to understand that Peter needs support.

'It's all very well knocking the ball up to him, but you need to be there to support him as well.'