Alan Irvine was left to rue a cruel lack of luck after Preston went out of the FA Cup courtesy of an injury time own goal having been handed the chance to win the game themselves from the penalty spot midway through the second half.

"It's very cruel," he claimed, having seen Portsmouth reach the quarter finals with a 93rd minute strike. "We certainly didn't deserve to lose that game, and though I've not watched the goal again, I believe it was a handball.

There were consolatory positives for the gaffer to reflect upon, and he believes they have to be acted upon, adding:

"Second half I was really pleased. We were playing very well, we created some very good chances, and we actually looked like we were going to take some very good chances. However, we faced a top-class goalkeeper in top form. He's a top goalkeeper and you've got to do very well to beat him. He certainly looked very big when Simon Whaley stepped up to take that penalty, and he also looked very big in general play. He made some outstanding saves.

"The first thing that Simon did when he came into the dressing room was to apologise, and I said that he's got no reason to apologise because people miss penalties. It's good that he feels that way and it's good that he says that to the lads, but we're certainly not going to start pointing the finger at Simon. We have now got some very important games coming up, and Simon will be a very important player for us in that period. The last thing that we want to do is make him feel any worse than he feels at this moment."

The gaffer believes, however, that the players will take heart from their efforts in their latest 90-minute outing, and was keen to play down any thoughts that the cup run would be a distraction amidst the key battle of trying to avoid relegation to League One.

"It's always good to come away from a game - win or lose - and feel that you've performed well. Clearly it was a big test for us playing against a team as good as Portsmouth, and to play as well as we did has got to give the players a lot of confidence. However, they can't rest on that. That level of performance is needed regularly, and it requires a lot of hard work as well as a lot of quality. If we can take that kind of form - particularly the second half kind of form - into the remaining 14 games then we'll be ok, but it won't be easy.

"If it was a choice between and replay and being out of the cup, I would have taken the replay. It now means that we don't have to fit another game into our already crowded schedule. We can concentrate on the league now but at the same time I wish we had another chance in the cup.

"I wasn't quite sure what they'd do," he concluded, when summising Pompey's 4-5-1 approach. "Obviously Harry had a lot of choices, and while we weren't hugely surprised that they lined up with five in midfield, we might have expected them to line up with two up front. We were ready for a few different things that they might have done, with contingency plans in place, and I was ready to change our shape if necessary. However, despite being outnumbered in the middle of the park, I didn't feel it was necessary."