Danny Cowley reveals Portsmouth pride after Doncaster rout caps sparkling week since Oxford United controversy

The Blues rattled off four second-half goals to hammer relegation strugglers Doncaster 4-0 at Fratton Park this afternoon.

It follows Tuesday night’s 2-1 triumph over Burton, which marked a first league win for almost two months.

That represented the perfect reaction to the injustice the Blues felt from last Saturday’s controversial 3-2 loss at the Kassam Stadium.

And Cowley was delighted with his team’s character as they closed the gap on League One’s play-off spots to nine points.

He told The News: ‘You think how hard we tried against Oxford, the discipline we showed to play 90 minutes with 10-men and were really unlucky not to get the result.

‘The character they have shown to bounce back from that disappointment and take six points at home has been great – and it was pleasing to give something back to our brilliant supporters.

‘The players have had a difficult run, we’ve had some key injuries in key places, and some new partnerships and relationships as a consequence of that.

‘Sometimes it just takes a bit of time and we just have to commit to it, commit to how we want to play, and I thought we did that in the second half.

‘Certainly once we got the first goal, then the second, you could feel the confidence coming back in and I thought we played some really good football in that second half.

‘I was really proud of the boys, it has been a really good week for us.’

It took the Blues until the 56th minute before breaking the deadlock, with Reeco Hackett heading home Marcus Harness’ right-wing cross.

Just seven minutes later George Hirst added a second, before substitute Aiden O’Brien and Sean Raggett also got on the scoreline to complete the 4-0 success.

Cowley added: ‘In the first half, I didn’t think we had a good way in, I just felt we were a little risk averse. We didn’t quite play how we wanted to, a bit too direct.

‘It probably took 20 minutes and after that we started to find a free man in midfield, which was Louis (Thompson), and we were able to get Marcus (Harness) and Reeco more into the game.

‘We got a well-worked first goal and knew we could hurt Doncaster if we got into advanced areas and got crosses and numbers into the box – and so it proved.

‘Three of the four goals came from crosses and, eventually, it was a good performance from us.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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