Ronan Curtis toasts Portsmouth's victory at Rochdale

The Republic of Ireland international continued his superb recent form by netting either side of half-time.

Ryan Williams was also on target as the Blues made it six games unbeaten and moved up to 11th in the table.

Despite the Dale having 68 per cent possession, Kenny Jackett's men’s defending was stoic and limited the hosts’ goalscoring chances.

And Curtis, who’s now bagged four times in his past five games, felt Pompey fully capitilised on the stray passes Rochdale hit.

The winger said: ‘We dug in deep, stayed compact and were shifting across the pitch left to right.

‘When they made a bad pass then we reacted on it and scored from it.

‘They had a lot of the ball but we know what we can do with the ball when we get it. The front three, four and five go with pace.

‘For the first one, I got in front, John’s played it to me and it’s a good finish.

‘The second was similar when I came in again and finished first time again.’