Pompey rue defensive mistakes after defeat to Yeovil

Featuring only one defender among their 11 changes for last night’s clash, the Blues lost 4-3 at Huish Park.

Michael Smith’s hat-trick was in vain in an entertaining game which also saw Kal Naismith claim two assists and Matt Clarke mark his return from injury.

Watched by a crowd of 1,534, of which 270 were Blues followers, the much-maligned tournament continues to leave supporters unimpressed.

Yet Pompey’s assistant boss believes the visitors should have won their opening encounter.

Richardson said: ‘It would have been a real spectacle for the neutral but we could have been better – three goals came from giving away possession in our third.

‘We dominated them in the second half and should have gone and won 5-4 really.

‘Conor (Chaplin) is adamant he should have had a penalty on the far side and, in my opinion, the referee was very average throughout for us. I expect him to be better.

‘Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got one defender on the pitch in Matt Clarke and everybody else is an attack-minded player, which we wanted.

‘We want to take the game to them and not set-up to be negative.

‘We had Adam May at right-back. He is a young lad and very intelligent footballer. He can play in a number of positions like Adam Barton.

‘It is a good education for the young lads, they have an appreciation of people playing in that position now.

‘With the amount of attacking players you are going to get soft goals but we have still got to be better.’