Portsmouth 2
Diarra 34, Krancjar 45

Argyle 1
Clark 5

ARGYLE, touted as no-hopers by everyone from Portsmouth captain Sol Campbell to the local rag, gave a superb account of themselves before failing to boot home the third leg of an unlikely underdogs' weekly treble at Fratton Park.

After the Young Pilgrims' FA Youth Cup win over Academy club Pompey at the same venue, and Devonport-based HMS Albion's 2-0 triumph over the supposedly superior HMS Ark Royal, the Westcountry baton had been passed to Paul Sturrock's men.

Despite a rip-roaring start, when new signing Chris Clark became the first Argyle player make a scoring debut in the FA Cup since fellow Scot Hughie Reed nearly 40 years before, last year's quarter-finalists progressed no further than this season's fourth round.

Lassana Diarra, the opposition's star man, levelled Clark's fifth-minute goal midway through the first half before Croat Nico Krancjar gave the opening-period scoreline a look that did not reflect the balance of play by netting on the cusp of the interval.

Another barnstorming Argyle start to the second-half rocked Pompey on to their heels and again saw David James as the busiest man in Hampshire, and the Pilgrims kept the pressure on to give Harry Redknapp and his men a most uncomfortable afternoon.

Just deserts might have been theirs had referee Andre Marriner awarded them a late penalty for what looked a clear handball by Sylvain Distin, but it was not to be. Death with glory.

After reading Campbell's programme notes, the Portsmouth faithful must have been surprised not to see the Pilgrims emerge from the tunnel chewing straw and blinking in the glare of the lustre shining from every part of Fratton Park's millionaires, to which, of course, little clubs are not used.

As for the Portsmouth Evening News' assertion that Argyle are like Crocodile Dundee - good in their own environment, but gauche off their home patch (I'm paraphrasing) - well, the last time anyone from that particular non-award-winning paper saw an Argyle game was when, exactly?

Cliches, people, and cheap ones, at that.

Luggy had made three changes to the side that drew 1-1 with Pompey's neighbours Southampton at Home Park seven days earlier, each for different reasons.

Record signing Steve MacLean was cup-tied, having played for Cardiff against Chasetown in the previous round, and Luke Summerfield - whose dad once scored a cracking Argyle winner at Fratton Park - was relegated to the substitutes' bench to allow Scotland B international midfielder Clark to make his debut.

The second forced change came at centre-back where Mathias Kouo-Doumbe was recalled in place of Marcel Seip, whose groin was not thought able to stand up to the rigours of 90 minutes against Premiership opposition on Saturday and a shift at Portman Road four days later.

For Portsmouth, the FA cup represents a decent route to European football and Redknapp duly selected his strongest side, Africa Cup notwithstanding.

He started with the same 11 that began the previous weekend's home match, a 3-1 thumping of Derby County in which the Zimbabwean Benjani Mwaruwari netted a 17-minute hat-trick.

Benjani's partner was David Nugent, the former Preston - and England - forward whose previous game against the Pilgrims had seen him draw a blank.

There were 11 nationalities represented at the beginning of the game, and just seven Englishmen. Both captains were French.

It was a Scot, via an Icelander, who had the first word, though.

A nerveless Argyle took the game to their hosts in the early stages and their enterprise was rewarded when Clark marked his debut in English football with a goal he will never forget.

Péter Halmosi drove in off his wing and fed the ball to David Norris, who tried a shot from the edge of the area that was blocked by Distin's strong challenge.

The ball skewed out to the right wing, where Clark had managed to sneak in under the radar, which meant he had plenty of time to measure a shot that Hermann Hreidarsson deflected past Devon resident James into the net. Cue paroxysms of joy from the 3,000-strong unit of the Green Army on Saturday afternoon duty.

The Pilgrims did not make the mistake of sitting on their lead and, for the opening quarter of the game, it would be no exaggeration to suggest that the proverbial alien arriving at Fratton Park at one minute past kick-off would have had trouble distinguishing the Premiership side from the Championship one.

Rory Fallon's renaissance continued when, after finding space for himself amongst the generous Pompey back-line, he extended James into a full-length save; Halmosi did likewise a few minutes later; and Easter's speculative scissor-kick from the breakdown of a Halmosi corner was clutched on the line by the overworked Chudleigh custodian.

Gradually, though, Portsmouth worked their way back into the thick of things, with new £5m Frenchman Diarra orchestrating things beautifully from the centre of the field.

Still, Luke McCormick was by far the less busy of the two goalkeepers and it was not until midway through the half, when Benjani escaped on the right to send in a cross to the near post gthat he was called into action. Before that, SuperLuke had nothing more to do than mop up a string of back-passes.

McCormick was fairly well blameless for Portsmouth's equaliser, which came from a right-wing corner, taken short. Pedro Mendes took the ball and squared it to Diarra, arriving at pace on the edge of the Pilgrims' penalty area.

His low shot appeared on target but took an unavoidable deflection - off Gary Sawyer, possibly - that ensured McCormick was left flat-footed.

For the next few minutes, the cup-tie earned the 'old fashioned' adjective so loved by those for whom clichés serve well. Fallon stung James's hands with a volley from his own knockdown, and Kouo-Doumbe needed to be at his swiftest to rob Nugent at the near post.

Argyle's best chance to retake the lead came when Easter sneaked inbetween James and Glen Johnson at the near post and managed to toe the ball into the centre of the goal. Unfortunately, no-one in a yellow shirt was up with play.

At the very least, the Pilgrims deserved to go into the break on level terms but they were denied that by a swift Pompey break that capitalised on Argyle's big men being stranded after going up field for another Halmosi corner.

So rapid was the move from end to end that Argyle's defensive unit as the ball came in from the right consisted of right-back Paul Connolly at left-back, and Clark and Norris at centre-back.

The latter's inexperience in the Timár role - and lack of height - led to some fatal hesitation that allowed Nico Kranjcar to latch on to the ball after it bounced off the Argyle midfielder and flick it past Luke McCormick.

Redknapp withdrew striker Nugent in favour of midfielder Arnold Mvuemba at half-time and left Benjani pretty well on his own up front, but the change of tactic did not have the immediate effect of quelling the Pilgrims.

Norris made James save before the former England goalkeeper did even better to keep out a shot from Halmosi after the Hungarian had broken free on the left. A third save, from Easter, soon afterwards left you wondering why the sometime Guardian columnist and erstwhile painter had chosen this afternoon to have an on-day.

Portsmouth played on the counter and went close when Sawyer presented the ball to Benjani, whose shot was low across McCormick and only just wide of the Argyle goalkeeper's far post.

In the main, though, the second half was more about Pompey's defenders, and their goalkeeper, than their forward players, and Luggy gave Lukas Jutkiewicz - aka the Handful - 15 minutes to keep them keen to the end.

The big youngster, who had scored four in midweek at Truro, was quickly in the mix-up, heading down a free-kick that found no takers.

Then, a turning-point. The ball was played in from the left and Fallon stretched to divert it towards goal, only for it to be rerouted for a corner by Distin's hand. Referee Marriner - an appropriately-named official for the Battle of the Dockyards, no doubt - decided that the Pompey skipper's intervention was, however, perfectly legal.

The decision seemed to sap what little remained in the Pilgrims' legs from an afternoon which they chased, harried and ran themselves into the ground for the cause.

Halmosi, though, found something from nowhere, driving himself into the box and firing a shot that, for once, had the beating of James, but scooted just the wrong side of the post.

Portsmouth (4-4-2): 1 David James; 5 Glen Johnson, 16 Noé Pamarot, 15 Sylvain Distin (capt), 7 Hermann Hreidarsson; 4 Lauren (28 Sean Davis 68), 6 Lasssana Diarra, 30 Pedro Mendes (22 Richard Hughes 90), 19 Niko Kranjcar; 10 David Nugent (18 Arnold Mvuemba half-time), 25 Benjani Mwaruwari. Substitutes (not used): 3 Lucien Aubey, 31 Asmir Begovic (gk).

Booked: Distin 88.

Argyle (4-4-2): 23 Luke McCormick; 2 Paul Connolly, 5 Krisztián Timár, 13 Mathias Kouo-Doumbe, 18 Gary Sawyer; 6 Chris Clark (8 Yoann Folly 80), 7 David Norris, 4 Lilian Nalis (capt), 16 Péter Halmosi; 36 Jermaine Easter (37 Lukas Jutkiewicz 76), 14 Rory Fallon. Substitutes (not used): 1 Romain Larrieu (gk), 17 Lee Hodges, 20 Luke Summerfield.

Booked: Halmosi 37, Kouo-Doumbe 59.

Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands).

Attendance: 19,612 (3,200 away est.).