Appalling Portsmouth suffer cup shock as rampant AFC Wimbledon claim 5-2 success

Shambolic defending contrived to dump much-changed Pompey out of Bristol Street Motors Trophy.

John Mousinho made nine changes to the side which won at Shrewsbury, including ripping up four of his back five - and it desperately showed.

Visitors AFC Wimbledon raced into a 3-0 lead after 28 minutes, with all three goals the consequence of poor Blues mistakes and a shaky new-look defensive unit.

Matters barely improved after that, despite a better spell at one point in the second half, and Kusini Yengi and Gavin Whyte both netting.

Certainly the League Two Dons were full value for their 5-2 triumph as barely a single Blues man emerged with any credit after an appalling display from a team consisting primarily of fringe players.

Certainly goalkeeper Ryan Schofield will want to forget about his rare Pompey outing, culpable for two goals at the very least and worryingly unconvincing.

He wasn’t alone, however, with Terry Devlin caught in possession for the opening two goals, although he later assisted in Whyte’s 58th-minute goal.

At least there was the welcome sight of Anthony Scully included in a Pompey squad for the first time in four months after recovering from injury.

However, a bumper crowd of 7,922 for the competition would have been hugely disappointed by the performance on offer, albeit in the knowledge League One is a far more important goal.

Only Kusini Yengi and Joe Rafferty kept their places from Saturday’s 3-0 success at Shrewsbury, with the latter asked to play at centre-half alongside Ryley Towler.

Those recalled include Ryan Schofield, Zak Swanson, Ben Stevenson, Denver Hume, Terry Devlin, Josh Martin and Gavin Whyte.

However, Tom Lowery wasn’t included in the 18-man squad, despite talk of his return to action in the build-up.

Wimbledon broke the deadlock on 11 minutes when Sasu caught Devlin in possession and surged forward, with the youngster unsuccessfully giving chase and nipping at his heels.

The attacker then struck a right-footed shot from the edge of the area which went through Schofield and entered the net to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Moments later, Stevenson was carelessly caught in possession by Charlie Lakin after receiving Schofield’s pass, only for the Wimbledon man to curl a left-footed shot wide of the target when he should have done better.

The nervy spell continued when Josh Davison found himself clean through, only for a heavy second touch to allow Schofield to get there first and gather.

Pompey responded with a lovely ball from Martin putting through Whyte down the right and his attempted squared pass to Yengi took a deflection and ran through to the keeper.

Yet the Blues fell further behind on 23 minutes, again emanating from a Devlin mistake.

The Irishman was caught in possession 30 yards from the Dons’ goal; by Lakin, who sparked a rapid counter-attack by releasing Davison, who raced forward and finished clinically from the angle.

It was a nightmare start for Mousinho’s men, contributing to their own downfall, while looking susceptible at the back with every attack.

Incredibly it was 3-0 after 28 minutes, this time arriving from James Tilley’s left-wing corner which was finished by Pearce.

Schofield came for it at the near post, but missed the ball under pressure from Davison, and Wimbledon’s centre-half finished comfortably at the far post.

Still Wimbledon poured forward, this time Hume missing his kick to allow Tilley to fire in a shot which was superbly turned away by Schofield.

On 39 minutes, Lee Brown cleared Yengi’s goal-bound shot off the line to prevent the deficit being reduced as the hosts’ agony continued.

The Blues did pull one back two minutes before the interval after Martin fed Hume down the left and the left-back was the architect.

He cut inside and out before delivering an excellent left-footed cross which was steered home by the head of Yengi from eight-yards out to make it 3-1.

Pompey brought on Scully for Yengi at the break, a predetermined substitution, with the Irishman going to the left flank and Martin moving over to the right.

However it was 4-1 on 48 minutes when Harry Pell’s free-kick went through the wall and beat Schofield at his near post, with the keeper furious with his team-mates.

Still the goals continued though, this time in the Blues’ favour, with Devlin’s persistence winning the ball down the right and his pull back was sweetly finished by Whyte to make it 4-2.

In the final minutes, substitute Ali Al-Hamadi made it 5-1 to complete the misery. Nonetheless, Pompey have more important things on their mind.