ROQUE Santa Cruz kept Rovers' faint dreams of Europe alive as his second half strike claimed all three points for the Lancashire club.

The Paraguayan grabbed the winner after a neat one-two with strike partner Jason Roberts on 74 minutes to settle this tight contest.

Jermain Defoe fired wide twice in the first half, whilst Jamie Ashdown pushed away Roberts' effort from the edge of the area, then after the restart he clawed away a goalbound header from Ryan Nelsen.

But Ashdown, in for the injured David James, was powerless to stop Santa Cruz, his low strike sending the 1000 visiting Rovers fans home happy.

As expected Mark Hughes kept faith with the same starting eleven that had performed so well in the 1-1 draw against Manchester United in their previous outing, the Rovers boss sticking to the same 4-2-3-1 formation that had worked to such good effect a week earlier.

The home side made three changes, Glen Johnson, Kanu and goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown coming in for Hreidarsson, Kranjcar and David James.

The game was certainly slow to get going, Sulley Muntari with a long-range effort that didn't trouble Friedel was the only strike towards either goal in the opening ten minutes.

Crosses from the right over to Pedersen coming in round the back showed promise, on two occasions the Norwegian was picked out by centres from Roque Santa Cruz and Steven Reid, but Pedersen wasn't able to direct his headers on target.

With both sides working hard to close down the opposition when not in possession, it lead to a game of hurried and misplaced passes, but on those rare occasions that either side was afforded time on the ball the quality of football improved.

One such move involving Brett Emerton, Morten Gamst Pedersen and David Bentley saw the England man take the ball into the area, but with Santa Cruz and Jason Roberts waiting at the back post, Bentley could only pick out Jamie Ashdown in goal.

That prompted the home side's best spell of the first half with Jermain Defoe at the heart of everything. On 35 minutes he was harshly flagged offside when racing through on goal, then four minutes later he fired a left-footed effort wide of Friedel's goal after the Rovers defence backed off.

Four minutes later the England frontman was in action again, hesitancy in the Rovers defence allowed Defoe to nip in, but from the right of the area he dragged his shot well wide of the far post.

The first shot on target came in the 41st minute by Rovers, Jason Roberts out-muscling his marker Sylvain Distin to turn towards goal, Roberts shot viciously from the edge of the area but Ashdown was alert to push the ball to the side. Roque Santa Cruz should have done better on collecting the lose ball, instead of shooting first time, he passed to a player in blue rather than a Rovers player.

Whilst the first half was largely short on goalmouth incident, the second was a much more open affair.

Ryan Nelsen still awaits his first goal in a Rovers shirt, but he'll never come closer than his 57th minute header from David Bentley's centre. The Rovers captain stopped to power the ball towards goal only to see Ashdown claw the ball aside.

Kanu has been the thorn in the Rovers' defence in many previous encounters, but today he was well shackled by Samba and Nelsen, but the one time he wrestled free of their clutches he was able to switch play to sub Niko Kranjcar, the Croatian international sent over an inviting cross to the back post where Sulley Muntari should have put the home side in front, but somehow he slid his effort across and wide of goal.

Sensing it could be Rovers' day Mark Hughes switched the formation back to a more familiar 4-4-2 and it worked a treat. With just over fifteen minutes remaining, a long ball upfield was only punched by Ashdown into the path of Morten Gamst Pedersen, he fed Santa Cruz who played a one-two with his now strike partner Jason Roberts before unleashing a low left-footed shot that flew past Ashdown at his near post.

It was the Rovers striker's 21st goal in a quite sensational first season for the club.

The goal prompted Harry Redknapp to throw on a third striker in Milan Baros but it was the men in red and black who continued to force the pace. A strong Brett Emerton run resulted in a Roberts shot saved, whilst four corners in quick succession caused panic in the Pompey ranks.

Although Friedel's fancy tricks with the ball at his feet lead to a 'heart in mouths moment as Baros threatened to pounce, the American almost losing possession in his area, before he was finally able to clear the danger.

Chris Samba limped off with a kick to the knee, replaced by Andre Ooijer, before the inevitable late surged arrived. In the 95th minute a twice-taken Kranjcar free-kick found the head of Diarra, but Friedel palmed the effort away.

The win sees Rovers move back into 8th in the league table, three points behind Aston Villa before their game against Everton.

A win for Villa will remove any chance of Rovers returning to the continent in the summer.

PORTSMOUTH: Ashdown, Lauren, Johnson, Diarra, Bouba Diop, Muntari (sub Baros 78 mins), Defoe, Distin, Utaka (sub Kranjcar 46 mins), Campbell (c), Kanu.

Subs not used: Begovic (GK), Aubey, Davis.

ROVERS: Friedel, Reid, Samba (sub Ooijer 87 mins), Nelsen (c), Warnock, Vogel, Emerton, Pedersen, Bentley, Santa Cruz, Roberts (sub Dunn 90 mins).

Subs not used: Brown (GK), Tugay, Derbyshire.

Booked: Defoe, Campbell (Portsmouth), Reid, Warnock (Rovers).

Attendance: 18,722