It was a welcome moment on an already extremely positive night for Pompey.
Already well on their way to beating Stevenage and sealing a spot in the Papa Johns Trophy quarter-finals, Michael Jacobs was introduced from the bench.
It was the midfielder’s first appearance since injuring his hamstring in a League One defeat at Charlton almost two months earlier.
Now Jacobs is hoping to continue building up his match fitness over the always hectic period of festive fixtures.
He said: “It was nice to get back out there after training for a couple of weeks and that 30 minutes will do me the world of good.
“I want to head into this Christmas period in the best place to be able to help the team when I get the opportunity.
“The medical team have been good with me as I’ve worked my way back and injuries are just something that happen in football.
"I want to head into this Christmas period in the best place to be able to help the team when I get the opportunity."
“It’s frustrating for all the boys who have been in the treatment room in recent weeks and you’re in the same boat.
“I just need to build robustness up so I’m ready to play on a consistent basis – especially because I’m not the greatest watcher!
“But I did enjoy doing the commentary on Sky the other week – it’s something I wouldn’t mind doing in the future and I just had to remember not to swear!”
Pompey host MK Dons in the league on Saturday, having knocked the same side out of the FA Cup just three weeks earlier.
Jacobs said: “Hopefully we can take these cup performances into the league and we’ve obviously played them recently.
“They come here with someone else in charge after changing the manager, but you don’t expect their team shape to change too much.
“We know they like to keep possession and our focus is more on ourselves and how we perform on the day.
“Now we want to push on over Christmas, win some more games and try to get ourselves at the top end of the table.”