Why Portsmouth Trophy humbling can be good news as stand-in skipper pulls no punches over insipid showing

Joe Rafferty admitted Pompey’s performance fell well short of acceptable levels as they were rolled over by AFC Wimbledon.

But the Blues’ stand-in skipper feels crashing out of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy could work out in his side’s favour this season.

John Mousinho’s men produced a dismal defensive performance as they were hammered 5-2 at Fratton Park by the League Two outfit.

The goals arrived off the back of a series of individual errors with the Dons 3-0 up after 38 minutes, as Pompey capitulated. Rafferty feels risks were taken leading to errors before made which would likely have not be in the case in league action.

He said: ‘It wasn’t good enough and the majority of the lads will say their performances weren’t good enough. That’s just how it was - we weren’t good enough.

‘A lot of times in this competition you can get a lot of changes and a lot of changes in the back four.

'So sometimes you see quite high scoring games and sometimes people take a risk or two they otherwise maybe wouldn’t in the league. That’s completely fine by me because it’s all about making mistakes, learning and trying to better yourself. That’s what happens sometimes and we were on the wrong end of that.

‘It’s one of those things that we now need to learn from moving forward. We need to regroup now and make sure we’re ready for what comes next in the league.’

Being dumped out of the Trophy ends Pompey’s last knockout involvement this season, following exits in both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. It means there are now 25 League One games left to focus on this term, with the clear priority always being to reach the Championship at the seventh time of asking.

Rafferty did acknowledge having no other distractions could work out in Pompey’s favour.

He added: ‘Maybe you could say it’s a positive there’s just the league to focus on now. It’s a good competition for a club like us and there’s a good chance to go all the way to the final. There’s also a chance to give minutes to players who aren’t playing .

‘There’s a positive to be able to focus on the league, though, and we all know that’s what we’re aiming for.’