Aston Villa Under-21s were defeated by Portsmouth in the Papa Johns Trophy at Fratton Park on Tuesday night.
The hosts got off to a flyer thanks to goals from Ronan Curtis and Michael Jacobs inside the first seven minutes.
The Young Lions saw Kyrie Pierre and Ruben Shakpoke threaten at the other end before Pompey ran away with the game in the second half.
A brace from Josh Koroma and a long-range effort from Reeco Hackett condemned Villa to consecutive defeats in Southern Group B.
Villa narrowly lost out to AFC Wimbledon in their opening game of the competition, and they were behind inside two minutes on the south coast.
Joe Pigott sprung the offside trap and saw his low shot parried into the path of Curtis by Filip Marschall, leaving the winger with an easy tap-in.
The hosts capitalised further on their strong start when Jacobs drove into the box and buried an effort with seven minutes played.
Marschall made a fine save to deny Pompey a third before Villa found their stride and tested Josh Oluwayemi for the first time, with Pierre sending a fierce drive straight at the ‘keeper.
The visitors’ influence on the game grew steadily, and they had a superb chance to threaten the Portsmouth goal when Shakpoke led a three-on-two counter attack.
With Teddy Rowe lurking unmarked to his left, the striker opted to shift the ball onto his left foot and saw a shot deflected wide as the home crowd breathed a sigh of relief.
Tony Carss introduced Declan Frith and Seb Revan at the interval, and the former’s pace immediately began to cause problems for the team in blue.
However, it was Portsmouth who were next to find the net seven minutes into the half when Koroma slammed home from close range.
The substitute, who replaced the injured Pigott in the first half, doubled his tally soon after when the ball fell at his feet and he rifled a first-time shot past Marschall at his near post.
Danny Cowley’s Pompey lost their unbeaten record in League One on Saturday, and they looked in the mood to make up for it against Villa.
A fifth goal arrived when a loose pass was intercepted by Hackett, with the midfielder galloping forward and sending a low effort into the bottom corner.
Villa, who applauded their 232 travelling fans at the final whistle, will now look towards their final group game of the competition against Crawley Town later this month.
Aston Villa: Marschall, Triston Rowe, Smith, Bogarde (Revan 45), Ealing (Barber 67), Hart, Raikhy (Wilson 67), T.O’Reilly, Pierre, Teddy Rowe (Afoka 74), Shakpoke (Frith 45).
Unused subs: Wright, Moore.
