By Gregg Davies @ Fratton Park
Hereford United's League Cup exploits came to an abrupt end at the second round stage, as a strong Portsmouth side notched their first win of the campaign with a comfortable 4-1 success.
First-half strikes from Frederic Piquionne, John Utaka and Niko Kranjcar effectively ensured the hosts' progress by the break.
And following a fourth from Richard Hughes after the interval, Tristan Plummer profited from a dubious penalty decision to give the United support something to shout about.
John Trewick named an unchanged starting XI following the narrow defeat at Crewe Alexandra, with Ryan Valentine - back after serving a ban - named among the substitutes.
Paul Hart's side, who had lost their opening three matches of the season, were quickly out of the blocks, with goalkeeper Adam Bartlett racing out to smother the ball at the feet of Piquionne inside the opening minute.
And after both Aaron Mokeona and Kranjcar had seen ambitious efforts blocked, the latter crossed for Younes Kaboul to nod into the path of Utaka, who powerfully headed across goal and inches wide.
The Bulls had Bartlett to thank soon after, thwarting both Utaka's strike and Piqiuonne's follow-up, for keeping the scores level.
The glove-man then denied the on-loan Lyon forward's powerful header at point-blank range, although the front-man had been flagged for offside.
And after Hereford had threatened for the first time, with Plummer seeing his low drive blocked, Piquionne cut inside but watched his vicious shot cannon back off the near-post.
Portsmouth finally made the break-through soon after, with Kranjcar allowed to saunter forward before passing to Piquionne, who fired low between Ryan Green's legs and beyond an unsighted Bartlett.
And within three minutes the hosts had doubled their lead.
Croatian international Kranjcar released Piquionne down the left-flank, whose low cross made it all the way to the penalty-spot, where Utaka was waiting to fire home.
With Pompey having taken their foot off the pedal, United eased their way back into proceedings.
A flowing move involving Kenny Lunt, Glen Southam and an advanced Green resulted in a shooting chance for the Welshman, only for Nadir Belhadj to snuff out the danger.
While at the opposite end, Belgian full-back Anthony Vanden Borre galloped forward but slashed his shot well wide of the near post.
The killer moment of the clash occurred shortly before half-time.
Home custodian Asmir Begovic pushed Craig Jones' goal-bound effort into the path of Leon Constantine, only for debutant Joel Ward to deny the striker with a heroic last-ditch tackle.
And within seconds, Pompey had their third, as Kranjcar was again allowed time and space to advance, before beating Bartlett at his near post from 18 yards.
Hereford began the second-half positively, with an unmarked Constantine heading an early corner over.
But before they knew it the visitors were further behind, as substitute David Nugent was dispossessed on the edge of the penalty-area, only for Hughes to expertly fire the ball into the top corner - his first goal since February 2004.
To their credit, the Bulls stuck to the task, and were handed the opportunity - perhaps fortuitously - to reduce arrears on the hour mark, after Plummer was upended by Begovic inside the penalty-area.
The Bristol City loanee, after winning the battle with Constantine to take the spot-kick, netted from 12 yards to the delight of the well-populated away enclosure.
And the visitors threatened to make the tie interesting, with Constantine's low drive gathered by Begovic at full-stretch, before Jonny Godsmark's rasping strike flew agonisingly wide of the top-corner.
Portsmouth twice went close to inflicting what would have been a cruel score-line on United late on.
But again Bartlett came to the Bulls' rescue, denying Nugent one-on-one, before thwarting Mokeona from close-range following Kanu's trickery on the goal-line.
