Pompey 0 - Swansea City 2
The FA Cup can be a fickle mistress. She smiled on Pompey with a saucy wink last season and obviously fancied a sunny few months on the south coast after being chatted up at Wembley and then proudly paraded around the city.
But she has never been one for settling down and, after delivering a swift knee to the Blues' groin, she'll be arm in arm with someone else in May.
In truth, it was a knockout blow of the most shattering proportions for Tony Adams' side.
And they will need to make the speediest of recoveries when they return to Premier League action tomorrow night.
While the FA Cup's finger of fate beckoned Pompey to a memorable success at Old Trafford in the quarter-final last season, there were some obvious parallels in this game.
A second-half battering of the visiting goal looked certain to break a resolute defence.
But as time wore on, the hunch that it was just one of those days became a reality.
Luck, courage, desire – they all played their part in last term's success and elements were certainly missing for Pompey this time around.
Of course, there will be bigger battles for the club over the remainder of the season.
But if they serve up the kind of lacklustre display they produced in the opening 45 minutes, they could yet find themselves in some serious trouble as the next four months unfold.
Swansea perhaps knew they had a real opportunity to become the giantkillers of the fourth round in front of some of the most vocal travelling supporters to grace Fratton Park this season.
And they sensed there was a sprinkling of FA Cup magic in the air.
But as far as Pompey were concerned, this brand of magic was straight from Sooty.
In fact, their attempts to get busy only arrived after the most tepid of first-half performances that was a horrible mish-mash.
Certain individuals came nowhere near to their usual standards, but the manager's choice of formation may have also muddied the waters.
Understandably, he opted to retain the 4-5-1 formation that had rejuvenated Pompey's creaking defence in recent weeks.
But new loan signing Jermaine Pennant was tasked with an unfamiliar central role in the midfield, while David Nugent – fresh from his goal at Tottenham – remained stationed on the right flank.
Yes, it would have been harsh on Nugent to find himself back on the bench after his exploits last weekend.
But Pennant's inclusion saw the on-loan Liverpool man make his natural runs to the right far too often to afford Nugent any space to work effectively.
Adams has fallen out of love with 4-4-2 at the moment, but under the circumstances, it might have been worth considering giving Nugent his chance alongside Crouch and handing Pennant the right-wing role.
The team can sometimes cope with one player playing out of position, but two left them looking horribly disjointed and struggling to find any rhythm – especially without the suspended Glen Johnson.
The good old 4-4-2 may not be Adams' cup of tea, but he would have at least had two more players playing in their natural roles.
It had already been a tentative start from the FA Cup holders in the opening quarter of the game and there were plenty of rueful smiles as Nathan Dyer – on loan from Southampton – responded to the crowd's taunts with a fine finish after latching on to Jason Scotland's probing ball over the top.
A mere setback surely – but Pompey were in deep trouble on the stroke of half-time when Scotland did his bit for Wales as he fired home a penalty with minimal fuss following a rash challenge from Nadir Belhadj on the impressive Jordi Gomez just centimetres inside the box.
Aside from a sharp Peter Crouch side-foot volley from Armand Traore's cross, Pompey had failed to trouble the outstanding Dimitrios Konstantopolous in the Swansea goal as the visitors produced some confident possession football.
With his team booed off at half-time, Adams threw caution to the wind and asked Hermann Hreidarsson and Kanu to dig him out of a hole as he pushed Pennant wide and went for two up front.
But while the tempo was a marked improvement on the funereal pace of the first-half attacks and promised a stirring fightback, Swansea's goalkeeper had other ideas.
Pompey have certainly had their run-ins with Greek goalkeepers in the past.
Memories of Kostas Chalkias still bring some Blues fans out in a cold sweat and would be the odds-on bookies' favourite if an award for worst Pompey keeper of all-time is ever handed out.
But while Chalky was worth at least one goal to Pompey opponents in every game he played, Konstantopoulos showed not all Greek keepers are quite as erratic and proved he is more than just a fine Scrabble score with a string of superb second-half saves.
Twice inside five second-half minutes, he produced full-length stops – first denying Crouch's towering header from Pennant's inviting cross and then getting down well to push a Sean Davis effort aside when it seemed certain the net would bulge after more good work from Pennant.
David James, meanwhile, was not exactly a spectator himself as he stopped Dyer grabbing a second with a smart save with his feet before he just about palmed Gomez's free-kick away from his bottom corner.
With time running out for Pompey, the writing was on the wall as Crouch saw his powerful header crash back off the angle of post and crossbar from Belhadj's corner before Pennant was denied a debut goal by a brave Konstantopoulos stop.
The goalkeeper still had one more save to make as substitute Younes Kaboul saw his close-range effort blocked.
Plenty of home fans had long since given up the ghost by that point and had made their way to the exits to begin a miserable post mortem.
Swansea fans, by contrast, lapped up their deserved moment in the spotlight.
And so it was a rueful farewell to the FA Cup.
She was a beautiful stranger while she was in our lives, but just as our mothers told us, we knew we should have never have trusted her.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 14 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: North west
