Thus far this season the Carling Cup has been a bright spot in Pompey's dark an dreary campaign.
11-2 was the combined scoreline heading into the quarter finals and now, the dream of salvaging something from this mess of a season has died on the boots of four of Villa's finest. But is that necessarily a bad thing? Maybe not.

Before I continue I should make one thing clear. Despite my insistence that giving Paul Hart the sack was a mistake I fully support Avram Grant. I even suggested hiring him at the beginning of the year. Because if there's one thing that man knows how to do, it's win.

Back to the Carling Cup.

So, as I hinted at earlier, I'm not totally sure that losing was such a bad thing. Well, ok. Losing is always bad. But losing in the plastic cup gives us a chance to focus completely on all the losing we have planned out in the Premier League.

But seriously, it could become a positive. That really is up to how the players deal with it. If the mope around and think that the only thing going there way has gone then we will be playing in the championship next year. Simple as that. But, if we can channel all of our efforts into salvation. If we can show up on match day and play our hearts out, if we can get behind the tactical genius that is Avram Grant. Then maybe it could be.