Michael Morrison has been a rock at the back from Pompey since arriving on the south coast over the summer.
So it was a surprise to see the veteran defender make an uncharacteristic error in the early stages of the latest League One contest against Peterborough.
He was dispossessed by Jonson Clarke-Harrison, who teed-up Jack Marriott to open the scoring at Fratton Park.
Dane Scarlett came to the rescue, however, with a double that secured victory and provided comfort for Morrison.
The centre-back said: “I’m relieved. When you make a mistake and it hurts the team then you feel bad.
“It was great to see Dane score the two goals and get me off the hook because we made it hard for ourselves at the beginning.
“But we showed some real character and the stadium was rocking. I was pleased with the reaction and also felt we played some really nice football.
"I’m relieved. When you make a mistake and it hurts the team then you feel bad."
“We showed when to press and when to hold our shape, while we were a threat on the counter-attack as well.
“The atmosphere was brilliant right at the end and when the final whistle goes, it’s a great feeling.”
Cowley used all five of his permitted substitutions against Posh and has made at least four changes in every game so far.
Morrison said: “We carry a real threat whoever is on the pitch and when we make changes, it must be difficult for the opposition to see who’s coming on.
“I don’t think it weakens us because we’ve got real strength in depth and that can carry us through to the end of the season.
“You know that competition is there and it gets the best of you. You know you have to perform every week.
“But it’s a good group here and you could see when we scored that everyone was celebrating together.”