Exeter City vs Portsmouth. EFL Trophy Southern Area First Round.
St James ParkAttendance2,323.
Tuesday 1 September 2015 22:05, UK
Exeter City cruised through to the second round of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy with a 2-0 victory over Portsmouth at St James Park.
The hosts dominated possession in the first half, but it was Pompey that looked more likely to score.
Adam McGurk should have done better inside the opening 20 seconds when he capitalised on a mistake in the Exeter defence, but he was denied by Bobby Olejnik's superb save.
David Wheeler had a goal harshly ruled out for a foul for the home side, but Pompey came close again on the stroke of half-time when Conor Chaplin curled a free-kick against the face of the Exeter crossbar.
Exeter dominated the second half and the deadlock was broken in the 54th minute when Tom McCready was pulled back inside the box by Brandon Joseph-Buadi and Ryan Harley smashed the resulting penalty into the top corner.
The hosts made it 2-0 after 74 minutes when substitutes Matt Jay and Clinton Morrison linked up well to feed Alex Nicholls and his cross-shot somehow evaded everyone and crept in at the far post.
Portsmouth's young side tired as the game wore on and they rarely troubled Exeter in a somewhat one-sided second half.
