At last: Promotion curse finally lifted for ex-Portsmouth favourite after multiple Fratton Park heartbreaks
After so many Pompey promotion heartaches - a former Fratton favourite is at last celebrating league success.
Port Vale clinched an immediate return to League One on Saturday, following a 2-0 triumph at AFC Wimbledon.
And it’s delight for Ronan Curtis, who, at the age of 29, finally earns his first Football League promotion after regularly missing out during his Pompey days, often in agonising circumstances.
The Irishman joined the newly-relegated Valiants in the summer and has contributed with five goals and 41 appearances to their memorable campaign under ex-Pompey defender Darren Moore.
He also appeared as a 91st-minute substitute in this weekend’s win at The Cherry Red Records Stadium, which booked them one of the three automatic promotion spots with one match remaining.
During five seasons on the south coast, Curtis was part of Kenny Jackett’s side which lost in successive League One play-off semi-finals.
Then, in 2020-21, under Danny Cowley, the Blues heartbreakingly missed out on the play-offs after a final-day 1-0 defeat to Accrington - having been in the places entering the Fratton Park match.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, the season after leaving the Blues, with his contract not renewed, John Mousinho’s men clinched the League One title.
226 appearances and 57 goals
Certainly no Pompey fan would begrudge the former Republic of Ireland international his long-awaited promotion, after establishing himself as a popular figure following an arrival in the summer of 2018 from Derry.
The left winger went on to score 57 times in 226 appearances, although never played for the club again after sustaining an ACL injury against Bolton in February 2023.
He was a fixture in Jackett’s side which led League One for the first half of the 2018-19 campaign, although a post-Christmas slump eventually condemned them to fourth by the season’s end.
Having instead qualified for the play-offs, they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Sunderland, albeit with Curtis, puzzlingly, an unused substitute in the second leg goalless draw at Fratton Park.
The following campaign in 2019-20, which was curtailed by Covid, the Blues met Oxford United in the play-off semi-finals - only to lose on penalties after it finished 2-2 on aggregate.
Then, in May 2021, Pompey were in sixth place - the final play-off spot - for the visit of Accrington in the last game of the 2020-21 season.
Curtis, who had scored 14 goals that campaign, was part of a Blues team which would lose 1-0 to Stanley, with Adam Phillips’ first-half goal proving decisive.
Cowley’s men ultimately finished eighth, with Oxford instead claiming the spot, although it would be Blackpool who went up through the play-offs.
Still, Curtis finally now has his promotion and will be back in League One next season following Port Vale’s success.