There was a feeling of what might have been as the final whistle blew on Pompey’s automatic promotion hopes.
A 3-2 home defeat to Peterborough means they cannot now catch Luton and Barnsley at the top of the League One table.
The play-offs now lie in wait after Saturday’s clash with Accrington, which will decide the semi-final pairings.
And Kenny Jackett knows that his side have to put their frustrations behind them quickly if they are to emerge triumphant.
The Blues boss said: “I’ve told the lads they can be disappointed tonight and tomorrow, although they have to get over it by the time we come in on Thursday morning.
“We’re not going up automatically and have to be ready for the play-offs – football’s the wrong industry to dwell on things.
“It was a great chance to take things to the final day, but there’s enough time for us to recover by the time we go again on Saturday.
"We’re not going up automatically and have to be ready for the play-offs – football’s the wrong industry to dwell on things."
“We’ve got 87 points and that’s no mean total, so we want to try to get up to 90. We want to secure third spot and have the second leg at Fratton Park.”
Goals from Ben Close and Christian Burgess saw Pompey battle from behind to level against Posh at a packed Fratton Park.
Viv Solomon-Otabor was then in an offside position when he converted Brett Pitman’s pass, with Ivan Toney almost immediately grabbing the winner for the visitors.
Jackett said: “It was end-to-end and we were looking for things to fall for us, but Peterborough produced a big away performance.
“We had done well to claw it back to 2-2 and were then trying to drive towards our own fans and get the winner.
“Either Brett should take it himself or Viv runs behind the man with the ball – it was those two decisions.
“There have been a few games recently when it’s gone our way, but this time the decisive moment went the other way.
“We played with plenty of passion and enthusiasm. We gave it everything and unfortunately it didn’t work out for us.”