‘We had four academy players who played this morning!’: Portsmouth boss on FA Cup challenges as side progress

The Pompey boss spoke of his pleasure at progressing to the third round of the competition with threadbare senior options.

The Blues are struggling with injuries, while Dane Scarlett and Owen Dale could’t play in the 3-2 win after being refused permission to do so by their parent clubs.

Cowley had to call on a quartet of academy players in Brian Quarm, Josh Dockerill, Koby Mottoh and Adam Payce, who all turned out for the under-18 side ahead of the game.

Taking that into consideration, the Pompey boss was pleased with the qualities his side showed.

He said: ‘It’s been a brilliant week for us to navigate through two really good cup ties in two different competitions.

‘We expended a lot of energy on Tuesday to get through in that competition.

‘Then to go again against a possession-based side like MK Dons with 15 senior players and four young scholars on the bench who played this morning was pleasing.

‘The academy lads played 60 minutes this morning, came off and then were part of the squad!

‘For us, we have some injuries which are hurting us and then we had no Owen Dale or Dane Scarlett who are two of our best pressers, so that was a challenge.’

The win came with Cowley switching to a back three in a 3-4-1-2 formation, after largely operating with a 4-4-2 this season.

That produced a display in which Pompey were the dominant force for an hour, before having to hold on after Mo Eisa made it 3-2 after 61 minutes.

He added: ‘We decided to change the system, because it’s nice to have some flexibility.

‘There was a lot to like in it, particularly in the first half.

‘We had a really good start to the game, so it was really frustrating to go 1-0 down when it was all us.

‘Our response was really good and we got a good goal from Reeco.

‘Then the second goal, the play leading up to it was brilliant. We lure them on, go over it, play off Colby and Jay runs the half space - penalty.

‘The third goal after half-time was a turnover on the high press, we play it in and maybe it was a bit soft.

‘It was good to get it, but we were disappointed from there on because we came off it a bit.

‘But it’s hard to be too critical of the group because there’s 15 fit players and they’ve had to come through two really tough games.’