It was fitting that Oli Hawkins waited until the 50th minute to make his match-winning contribution.
After all, the striker was celebrating a half-century of Pompey appearances by starting against Fleetwood.
He provided the only goal of the game, nodding in from close range after Tom Naylor had diverted Dion Donohue’s corner towards the net.
And Hawkins was delighted that the Blues sealed a home victory following a recent barren spell at Fratton Park.
He said: “We’re very pleased with what was a hard-fought win and it’s similar to the past few games here.
“It’s been about battling to break teams down and it was another tough match, but we were able to be solid at the back and create some chances.
"There’s a bit of relief there and hopefully I can relax into games now and go on to get some more goals."
“Six minutes at the end felt like a long time, but they didn’t really hurt us and I thought the defence did really well.
“I was able to get the goal – which I was really happy with – and more importantly, we came out with the victory.
“It was nice to score, but I haven’t had too many lately and centre-forwards like to get ones like that when you just nod it in.
“There’s a bit of relief there and hopefully I can relax into games now and go on to get some more goals.
“I do a lot of work outside the box and so maybe I’m not there enough for those tap-ins where you’re a ‘fox in the box’.
“Hopefully I can get a few more of them, while continuing my job of contributing to the team. That would be good for me.”
Pompey are now six points clear at the top of the League One table, although Hawkins is remaining calm.
He said: “We don’t want to get carried away and will just focus on taking it game by game. We’re concentrating on playing Burton now.”