For a few weeks now Tottonians' captain Ali Ramus has been urging his side to continue the commitment and drive and not drop their guard against sides they are expected to beat on their way to probable promotion from London Four South-West.

It was obvious in this final first-round clash in the Hampshire Worthington's Cup that Portsmouth may have been suffering from the same apathy. The visitors won 20-12, but themselves could so easily have fallen flat on their faces.

The visitors looked like they were going through the motions against these lower league upstarts until they received a wake-up call on the quarter mark when Paul Goodall found Paul Brading running through at pace, slicing through the defence for an excellent opening score.

It was no more than Totts deserved after Goodall posted the conversion and it was they who closed the stronger when the half-time whistle came - just when they probably did not want it to.

With the amount of handling errors being produced, especially by the London Two South outfit, it was no surprise they were zero points at the break.

Some choice words from their coach Ian Chandler at the interval gave the visitors the necessary kick up the behind and just eight minutes into the second period Bath University student winger Tom Sumner was on the end of the passing move along the line to touch down.

Sumner, who has not played since leaving the club to take up his studies, showed he had lost none of his pace as he threatened Totts on a number of occasions with piercing runs, one of which moved his side ahead for the first time.

A lost ball against the head from a defensive scrum released the Pompey backs and Australian winger Grant Erskine, in his second game for the club, crossed in the corner - and celebrated with a cricket-style bowl! His teammates will ensure he gets a 'fine' for that!

His conversion and penalty split the sides by eight points and skipper Neil Styles' easy effort just before the end would have given the scoreline a very unfair look, as Totts did not deserve to lose this game by the measure of more than ten points.

It was only fair when replacement winger Dave Lamb used his pace to lurch over in the right corner for a deserved consolation. But that is all it was in the end as Portsmouth went through to clinch victory.

Chandler was relieved to have secured the win. "We did not give Tottonians the respect they deserved in the first half, turning up thinking we would win the game easily.

"Ali Ramus, Paul Brading and Guy Tonkins are good players and they knew what they were doing. We were not at the races until the second half where we showed we were the better side, but all credit to Totts for their effort."

Ramusknew the game was for the taking, but admitted it was a fair result in the end. "Today was a big acid test for us, given we are odds-on favourites to go up and it was interesting to see how we would fair against a side from a higher league," he said.

"I thought we did well, but we gave them a foot in the first five minutes of the second half and took our foot off the gas. We could have won the game, but I cannot complain about the result."

One interesting sub-plot to the game was the brother partnerships at half-backs in both sides. Jamie and Stuart McLaughlan featured for Portsmouth for the first time in a number of years, while Martin and Paul Goodall continued their season-long link for the hosts.