Portsmouth boss John Mousinho refused to blame Joe Morrell and Abu Kamara after their missed penalties sent his side crashing out of the Carabao Cup at the hands of 10-man League One rivals Peterborough.
Kamara had the chance to send Pompey into round three but blazed his penalty over the bar before Wales international Morrell sent his crashing against the post as Posh triumphed 5-4 in the shootout after a 1-1 draw.
Mousinho said: “I have no problem with that, I’ve been in those situations, it’s really difficult and you have to have a lot of steel to step up and take one.
“We’re obviously disappointed at not getting through to the next round.
“We had plenty of chances but couldn’t put them away.
“Christian Saydee was excellent tonight. A massive presence and a thorn in their side throughout and I was delighted he got the goal.”
Posh took the lead after 29 minutes when an in-swinging corner caused Pompey problems and David Ajiboye bundled the ball home from close range.
It took only six minutes of the second half for Pompey to equalise as a cross from Paddy Lane fell to Saydee who, with his back to goal, swivelled to fire superbly past goalkeeper Fynn Talley.
Peterborough’s Charlie O’Connell saw red after a second yellow card for a foul on Terry Devlin in the 59th minute, having already been booked for kicking the ball away in the first half.
Posh boss Darren Ferguson said: “I was so proud of the team tonight. They’ve brought on half the team who will start on Saturday, we’ve gone down to 10 men and we’ve managed to dig it out.
“If we had lost in the last minute or on penalties, I would have still been proud of them. They gave everything.
“This was as important a game as any other game this season. I need to see who can step up to the first team and there were some good performances out there tonight.
“We scored a really good goal, had other chances and should have had a penalty as well.”
