John Marquis’ first Pompey goal since returning to the club came against Coventry last week.
But the summer signing was much happier with the result that accompanied his second – a 2-0 Carabao Cup win at Queens Park Rangers.
He calmly slotted home from the spot before Marcus Harness wrapped things up to set up a mouth-watering Fratton clash with Southampton.
And Marquis was pleased that the Blues managed to get back on track against their Championship opponents.
The striker said: “It was important for us to get a positive result after what happened the previous week.
“There wasn’t much in the game and it was probably lacking in quality from both sides if I’m being honest.
"There are a lot of positives and it’s always nice to have a cup run, so we’re looking forward to the next round."
“After scoring the second goal we did well to see things out, so it’s obviously something that we’ve learnt from.
“We kept the ball a lot better at QPR and had more opportunities – on another night we might have nicked a third goal.
“The gap between me and the midfield was quite large and so it was hard to bring other people into the game.
“But we got better in the second half and we kept hold of possession more when we were in the final third.
“There are a lot of positives and it’s always nice to have a cup run, so we’re looking forward to the next round.”
Marquis showed plenty of cool to score from the spot, having been fouled in the box by Rangers defender Toni Leistner.
He said: “It was a penalty – he got too tight to me and I rolled him. It was nice to see the ball hit the back of the net.”