STOKE CITY'S young reserve side gained a creditable point from a game of few goalscoring opportunities against Portsmouth at West Leigh Park.

The Potters took an early lead through Matthew Lund in the Barclays Premier Reserve League fixture, but were pegged back by an equaliser from Danijel Subotic.

In the end, a draw was probably a fair result as both goalkeepers had fairly quiet nights with the opportunities to add to the early goals few and far between.

The game featured two young sides with only a handful of players who had gained any first team experience, but it was City who started brightly and Lund drilled home a low shot into the bottom corner from the edge of the box in the second minute of the game.

The Potters could have stretched their lead after 16 minutes when Craig Sinclair was denied by a point blank range save from Liam O'Brien, but then Pompey equalised on the counter attack as Subotic slid the ball home at the far post from a right wing cross.

The only other notable incident of the first half was a clash of heads between goalkeeper Dave Parton and defender Lennard Sowah which led to the Portsmouth player being replaced by Perry Ryan during the half time interval.

City had appeals for a penalty waved away after Louis Moult went down in the box under pressure from Tero Mantyla, but it was Pompey who went closest in the closing stages with Subotic proving to be a constant threat to the visitors defence.

Portsmouth: O'Brien, Reynolds, Mantyla, Ward, Sowah (Ryan 45 mins), Hurst, Cuvelier (Ciftci 46 mins), Bopp, Kilbey, Nlundulu, Subotic.

City: Parton, Mitchell, Sinclair, Alexander, Foster, Urwin, Nicholls (Dawson 73 mins), Clarkson, Lund, Moult Harrison (Vickers 82 mins).