Matt Bloomfield praises ‘many positives’ as Wycombe put Portsmouth out of FA Cup

Wycombe manager Matt Bloomfield admitted there were “many positives” to take from his side’s 2-0 FA Cup third-round victory at home to Championship Portsmouth.

First-half goals from Brandon Hanlan and former Pompey defender Sonny Bradley secured the Chairboys’ spot in the next stage of the world’s oldest football competition for the first time in four years, in a fixture where the League One side did not look in danger.

Both sides made wholesale changes but the visitors rarely threatened, which led to their supporters chanting ‘attack’ midway through the second period in a second-ever FA Cup fixture between the two sides – the first at Adams Park.

Speaking at full-time, Bloomfield said: “There were so many positives as there were many great individual performances.

“Brandon (Hanlan) took his chance in the starting XI. Declan Skura was magnificent and he knows my thoughts on how he has played in certain games.

“He is willing to learn which is great.

“Dec was alongside Sonny Bradley, who is a proper Wycombe player – a warrior and Matt Butcher was excellent.

“He hasn’t played nearly enough football for the calibre of player he is and that’s 100 per cent on me. It’s not on his performances and he was brilliant today.

“Overall, I’m so happy as the players sought out the gameplan we had and now we’re in the next round.”

However, Portsmouth manager John Mousinho was not happy with his side’s display.

Apart from a goalmouth scramble in the opening five minutes, Pompey did not look dangerous at all, and Mousinho admitted his team’s performance was below his expectations.

He said: “We have had a very busy Christmas period and have Blackburn during the week, which will be our fifth away game in six.

“This has meant we’ve had to be reliant on our core and I thought it was the right thing to do (make changes).

“We didn’t want to risk any injuries to key players and now it’s just about resting legs for the game on Wednesday.

“Even though we all know that the Championship is the most important thing for us, I still think we should have been a lot more competitive than we were tonight.

“I haven’t said anything to players as I didn’t think there was much point – we’ll review the game tonight and there’s not much you can say about the performance.

“We were way below the standard.”