Match Report: Notts County ripped apart by rampant Portsmouth

Notts County fans were in good spirits ahead of their side’s League Two clash with Portsmouth at Fratton Park, but by the end of it they were left to bemoan a poor display for which new boss Mark Cooper will need to pull out all the stops to sort out.

The hosts had a penalty appeal turned down after just three minutes, with Haydn Hollis’s challenge on Ben Davies in the box not being punished.

A slip up by the Pompey keeper allowed Izale McLeod the chance to volley into an open goal from 30 yards out, but the ex-Crawley man missed the target.

Notts were intent to stamp their mark on the game and in what proved to be quite a niggly first half, the visitors weighed in with a number of challenges, which saw the likes of Rob Milsom and Curtis Thompson receive bookings.

Unfortunately it wouldn’t prove to be so fruitful on the goal tally, because on the stroke of half time, Kyle Bennett was able to get deep into the Notts area and slot past Scott Loach.

Shortly after the restart Adam McGurk could have doubled the advantage, but his free header from Ben Davies' free kick sailed wide.

Notts were nevertheless undone again in the 48th minute courtesy of Bennett’s second, cottoning onto Gary Roberts' slide-rule pass and slotting past Loach.

Pompey then made it three goals to nil when Christian Burgess got in front of his man to head in Enda Stevens' quickly-taken free kick.

Paul Cook’s side made sure of a crushing win when top scorer Marc McNulty lobbed a header over Loach, once again completely unmarked.

4-0 was the final score, and it looks like Craig Westcarr’s prediction of this job being Cooper’s most difficult in his time as a manager looks to be correct.

What did you make of the performance? Let Pride of Nottingham know by signing up to the website, visiting the forum and joining the conversation.