It has now been a week since John Mousinho was installed as Pompey’s new head coach.
He has certainly enjoyed a positive start to the role, overseeing successive victories over Exeter and Fleetwood.
It saw a run of 10 successive League One matches without a win – stretching back to October – come to a welcome end.
Mousinho knew that his new squad had the potential to get back on track, but was pleased to see it happen so quickly.
The Blues boss said: “It was a surreal experience coming in on Friday morning without any time to properly prepare for the first training session and a game straight away.
“We then had a bit of time together going up to Fleetwood on the Monday and the chance to get away from all the madness was useful.
“It allowed us to take a step back and work on a few bits to try to build on the progress from the Exeter game.
“The most pleasing thing for me was to see two really positive performances and to get the wins as well. The lads have a spring in their step.
“I knew we had good players, although I wasn’t sure how quickly they’d be able to bounce back and show that confidence again.
"The most pleasing thing for me was to see two really positive performances and to get the wins as well. The lads have a spring in their step.
“It’s an enigma because you need that to win games, but the only way to get it is by winning games. It can be a vicious cycle.
“So to show that confidence in the second half against Exeter was pleasing and we just want it to keep going.”
Pompey now travel to a Peterborough outfit sitting eighth in the standings and who have seen their past two matches fall victim to the weather.
Mousinho said: “They’re a good side who have also had a recent managerial change, although Darren Ferguson will be familiar with the players.
“Peterborough haven’t had a game for almost two weeks and have a really strong squad, with a lot of attacking threat.
“I’m sure they’ll be challenging for the play-offs and we’ve done our work on them. It’s another stern test and it doesn’t get any easier.
“We have to take confidence and positives from our recent wins, but there’s another job for us to do on Saturday.”
Pompey will have to do without Ronan Curtis, whose impressive showing at Fleetwood on Tuesday night was cut short by an ankle injury.
Mousinho said: “I was worried for him when he came off the pitch because he was unable to support his own weight.
“It’s not ideal, but I don’t think it’s as bad as we first thought it might be. We’re hopefully looking at around three weeks, without putting any pressure on Ronan.”