Kenny Jackett was bemoaning Pompey’s lack of potency from set-pieces a few weeks ago.
But the Blues have scored a deluge of goals from dead ball situations since the start of 2020, helping them climb into the top six.
A fine Ronan Curtis free-kick was converted by the in-form Christian Burgess to open the scoring against Sunderland at Fratton.
And James Bolton then bundled home a corner from the Irishman to seal a deserved 2-0 victory over fellow promotion hopefuls.
It saw the right-back open his League One goal account for Pompey and made amends for an earlier miss.
He said: “We’re on a good run at the moment and it was an absolutely massive result for us to keep it going.
“We’ve won a few games and not quite been able to get into those play-off places, so it’s nice to be there now and we want to keep pushing on.
"The balls into the box have been really good in the past few games and it’s no coincidence that we’ve been scoring from set-pieces."
“It’s about time that I scored in the league and I’ve had a few chances, including the one that fell to me in the first half.
“I was gutted that I couldn’t do better with that, but luckily I was able to get on the end of a good delivery from Ronan.
“The balls into the box have been really good in the past few games and it’s no coincidence that we’ve been scoring from set-pieces.
“It’s something we obviously work on, although you’re also relying on a bit of luck that the ball falls to one of our players.”
Bolton struggled to hold down a spot in the team earlier in the campaign, but has now become an integral part of the back four.
He said: “You can’t take anything for granted and it’s quite easy to lose your place again, so I’ve got to keep working hard.
“We’re a tight-knit group and everyone’s trying to push each other and make ourselves better. Competition is useful for the squad.”