TWO goals by Luke Nightingale and a home debut strike by Steve Lovell sent Portsmouth strolling towards a place in the Worthington Cup second round.

The 18-year-old strike pair turned teenage tormentors, scoring all three goals as Alan Ball's "shadow" side wrecked Torquay United's unbeaten five-match start with an easy win.

With important Division 1 matches against Barnsley and Huddersfield Town looming over the Bank Holiday weekend, Ball rested nine of the side that beat Stockport County 2-0 on Saturday.

But they were too good for Torquay, who hadn't conceded a goal in 321 minutes' football since a 2-1 win at Shrewsbury in their opening Division 3 match on August 7.

It took Pompey just 67 seconds to change all that - a flowing move from the back, initiated by Michalis Vlachos, gleefully finished by Nightingale after a delightful curled pass by the industrious Sammy Igoe.

It was the youngster's fifth Pompey goal and his first since equalising in the 1-1 draw at QPR last January.

Referee Lee Cable had an uninten-tional hand (or ankle) in Lovell's debut-celebrating second in the 27th minute.

Martin Phillips cut in from the left, played a freak one-two off the referee's ankle and stabbed the ball invitingly through for the former Bournemouth teenager to rifle a rising shot past the advancing Neville Southall.

"It was my first goal in pro football and I couldn't have scored it past a more famous keeper," enthused the New Forest-based striker, from Burley.

Lovell's strike effectively killed off Torquay, although twice, either side of the interval, Tony Bedeau squandered chances that could have put the Devonians back in the tie.

Nine minutes after the break, it real-ly was all over, Nightingale, lurking at the back post, drilling a shot on the turn past Southall after Vlachos had headed back Phillips's corner.

Eight minutes from time, the Fratton End's attention switched from the potentially mouth-watering Nightingale-Lovell strike duo to a Portsmouth legend.

Alan Knight received a rousing Fratton reception as he replaced Aaron Flahavan to make his 799th Pompey appearance and soon showed he had lost none of his touch with a fine save from Bedeau at the near post.

With Southall, 40, between the Torquay posts, Knight's late introduction brought the aggregate age of the two goalkeepers to 78 years - and a staggering 1,745 combined appearances.

The former Wales and Everton keeper was making his 948th professional appearance.

But Southall is unlikely to regard this one as one of his more memorable matches.

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