Portsmouth leap-frogged Sunderland into the League One play-off places with a 2-0 win thanks to goals from defenders Christian Burgess and James Bolton.

Luke O'Nien came closest to opening the scoring for the visitors when he struck a post from 20 yards.

The opener came when centre-back Burgess marked his 200th Portsmouth appearance by heading in emphatically at the back post on 25 minutes from a Ronan Curtis free-kick to give Pompey the lead.

Two minutes before the break Jon McLaughlin pulled off an excellent save to prevent Bailey Wright heading into his own net from Andy Cannon's cross.

Sunderland had two appeals for penalties in the first half but both would have been fortunate to be given.

Pompey came out for the second half the stronger side and Bolton doubled Pompey's lead on 52 minutes side footing home Curtis' corner from close range.

There was concern when a lengthy stop in the final 10 minutes led to Sunderland defender Joel Lynch being stretchered off to a waiting ambulance following a collision with his goalkeeper.

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