Pompey stopped the rot against Rochdale at last, the form book was flipped as we turned in our best performance of the season, in came Ricky Holmes, Frank Carson and Thierry Racon, the new keeper was no shock, while Racon slipped seamlessly into midfield idling with the teenage ninja mutant Ertl, a move that also see Ertl give his best performance of a stuttering season.
Pompey looked sharp from the off, the defence looked solid and sound whilst the defence had bite and guile, Marquis was a willing runner in place of the crocked Connolly, while Agyemang was at his battering ram best.
Marquis had the first real sight of goal, he probably felt he should of opened the scoring too, his left footed shot was mishit and bounced wide. Wallace blasted wide and Pompey had their tails up, a goal had to come, and come it did.
Wallace was the man on the mettle once more, he got himself central and blasted left footed into the net, the lead was well deserved and more importantly the performance was there to match.
The second half was more of the same, the two goal hero though was from a most unexpected source, Billy Bondz was the man, two carbon copy goals they were too, two great right wing deliveries from the corner flag from Ricky Holmes were met powerfully by big N’Gala, both headers crashed into the net, Pompey had a three goal lead for the first time since Morecambe.
N’Gala almost had the most unlikeliest of hat tricks, this time the cross came from the left, N’Gala’s feet were not as accurate as his head however and the ball sailed over the bar.
As Pompey coasted to the win, Carson showed why he was bought in, it was injury time when he went full length to save one effort, then got up to claw the follow up of the line, a truly great double save the had the crowd up in appreciation.
All in all a fantastic turnaround from a couple of disappointing weeks, the only downpour was a card happy ref who blew up and flashed a yellow for the most innocuous of Pompey challenges.
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