It was a special night for Wales International David Brooks as he scored a Hattrick in his first start and appearance at the Vitality since 2021 after surviving his battle from cancer as AFC Bournemouth Development beat Portsmouth 5-2 in the Hampshire Senior Cup Quarter final.
A strong Portsmouth side with seven first-team players in the starting line-up, all in need of valuable minutes included players like defender Clark Robertson and Striker Joe Piggott who has featured in 32 games for Pompey this season, posing a good test for Bournemouth.
The game started with the Cherries looking comfortable in possession, they had the ball on the ground instead of going long and the first chance came from Ben Winterburn chipping the keeper but losing his footing trying to get past allowing the keeper to claim the ball before it bounced in.
Portsmouth had brought vocal support with hundreds of fans stood at the back of the stand making plenty of noise to get behind their team on what was a mild Tuesday night on the south coast.
Despite this, the star of the show early on was certainly David Brooks as he was showing his Premier League quality out on the right wing, but captain Ben Greenwood had the best chance as he comfortably won possession in the middle of the pitch before unleashing an effort from 30 yards only just scraping wide.
Despite the Cherries' dominance, suddenly after 12 minutes, there was a mix-up in the Bournemouth box, and this allowed midfielder Tom Lowery to capitalise taking it past keeper Billy Terrell to give Pompey the lead.
The goal completely changed the game as Portsmouth took full control, the strong side showing their quality as they upped the tempo and started to press aggressively to keep Bournemouth in their own area and they were rewarded with a second on 21 minutes as young attacker Koby Mottoh was found from a great cross from Tom Lowery to make it 2-0.
But Bournemouth responded almost instantly, David Brooks was able to pull one back for Bournemouth, the lead was cut in half, and it was game on for the Cherries.
On 30 minutes the Cherries sprung a counter and Daniel Adu-Adjei found David Brooks who held up play for Adu-Adjei to get in behind and a lovely through ball from brooks set up Adu-Adjei to score an equaliser on the edge of the area, 2-2 and back to square one for Pompey.
Straight after the equaliser Bournemouth smelt blood and David Brooks was found on the edge of the area and his deflected shot wrong-footed the keeper going in the net, it was 3-2 to Bournemouth with 3 goals in 8 minutes to come from 2-0 down and take the lead.
If the game wasn’t already crazy, three minutes after taking the lead David Brooks had his hattrick as he was left in loads of space to calmly convert for a fourth time in 13 minutes and make it 4-2.
It was certainly an evening to forget for Denver Hume, all four goals coming from his side.
The crowd at the Vitality was being treated to a thriller with Six goals in the first half and it was turning out to be the perfect return for David Brooks as he was taking home the match ball after his first-half heroics.
His evening would compete as he made way for Michael DaCosta Gonzalez, but he had certainly left his mark as he made great progress towards full-match fitness.
The second half started at a much slower pace, in the first 15 neither side posed much threat until Pompey won a free kick 25 yards out, Joe Pigott let fly but it went over.
The Cherries wanted a fifth to put the game to bed and Noa Boutin eased past Jack Fox but his shot was dragged wide.
Moments later the Fifth goal came from Dan Adu-Adjei getting his second after beating experienced Centre Back Clark Robertson in terms of both speed and physicality and slotting it under Pompey Keeper Josh Oluwayemi.
Adu-Adjei could have had his Hattrick as DaCosta Gonzalez intercepted a stray pass and found the young striker, but Josh Oluwayemi made himself big to make the save.
Goal number five seemed to have put the game to bed, the cherries looked confident on the ball as they passed around the back while looking for a potential opportunity to spring a counter their game management was brilliant as they kept things safe in the last 20 minutes as it ended 5-2.
Man of the Match-David Brooks