Danny Cowley felt his Portsmouth players were rewarded for showing more bravery after scoring four second-half goals to beat lowly Doncaster 4-0 in League One.

The home side ran riot after half-time having been frustrated in the opening 45 minutes, with debutant Aiden O’Brien adding his name to the scoresheet a minute after coming off the bench.

Head coach Cowley said: “It was a hard-fought first half.

“We probably didn’t quite get the game plan to where we wanted it to be that first 20 minutes, which was too direct, too risk adverse.

“I thought we had a better ending to the first half and found some rhythm.

“Really, the message at half-time was just free the players up a bit, to be a little bit braver, a little more courageous on the ball.

“We picked an attacking team, probably the most technical team that we’ve picked, I would say.

“And you have to really commit to playing that way and I felt second half we did that.

“You saw more rhythm and flow to our performance, particularly after we got the second goal.

“I think you saw a confidence that maybe hasn’t been there, and I thought it was a really good second-half performance.”

Doncaster had the better of the first half and should have taken the lead when Joe Dodoo somehow did not score after good play from Ben Jackson and Tommy Rowe.

Reeco Hackett headed Pompey in front from a Marcus Harness cross 11 minutes into the second half and George Hirst made it 2-0 in the 63rd minute.

O’Brien swept in Ronan Curtis’ cross nine minutes from time before Sean Raggett’s header sealed the rout in stoppage time.

Doncaster manager Gary McSheffrey said: “I couldn’t see a 4-0 coming after the first half.

“I thought we were the more comfortable team. But you can’t miss golden opportunities when you come to a club like Portsmouth.

“We were brave on the ball. We got a bit sloppy the last 10 minutes of the half, but we were disappointed we weren’t a good two goals ahead when half-time came.

“The second half, we weren’t doing the basics for some reason. We didn’t work hard enough, became a soft touch.

“After the fourth goal, I’ve thought to myself that that’s the only shots they’ve had.

“Our ball retention was bad up front which meant the ball kept coming back. We need to stay in games and be braver.”