Pompey were satisfied to come away from their Worthington League Cup opener on level terms but they didn't return home from Devon completely unscathed.

Alan Ball's men survived a a stern buffeting as Torquay stepped up the pressure later in the game but ex-Saints midfielder Matthew Robinson collect-ed an unwanted souvenir - the first red card of his career.

Robinson collected two yellow cards in the space of six second-half minutes. First he inanely kicked the ball away after he was pulled up for a foul on Eifion Williams, then a rash late, challenge he was fully committed to, sent Steve Tully tumbling.

While honestly accepting afterwards that he had left referee David Crick with no choice, Robinson had every reason to reflect ruefully how Sammy Igoe escaped a similar fate.

After Tony Bedeau had caught him late, Igoe kicked the Torquay striker on the deck in full view of a linesman.

But he escaped and so did Pompey from a stiff second-half examination from a Torquay side who were unable to convert their pressure into the sort of lead they will need in next week's second leg.

A Pompey side that showed eight changes from that which drew at Molineux on Saturday was marginally the better in a largely nondescript first-half.

if nothing else, it was a searching test of the phys-ical commitment of Luke Nightingale and Stuart Lovell, a strike force with a combined age less than that of veteran Neville Southall.

Both Lovell and Nighintgale were given a hefty buffeting by Alex Watson and Jimmy Aggrey, a tow-ering 20-year-old, and it was to their credit they came back for more. Torquay sensed they had to do something in their home leg and went at Pompey in the second-half. Flahavan palmed away Mick O'Brien's powerful shot and clung on to another from Bedeau, while substitute Jean-Pierre Simb failed to hit the target from six yards.

For Pompey Nightingale had a shot brilliantly tipped over by Southall, and Lovell pulled down a cross but was confronted by the imposing sight of Southall juggernauting towards him, and his control went.

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