It was an unfamiliar feeling that greeted the final whistle at Fratton Park on Saturday.
After a run of 27 league games without defeat, Pompey had just been beaten 4-0 by Blackpool to lose their spot at the League One summit.
Sean Raggett now wants the side to ensure that they do not become too accustomed to that sensation.
And he is targeting a return to winning ways at Burton on Tuesday evening to get things back on track.
The long-serving centre-back said: “There are certainly loads of things that we can improve on all over the pitch.
“It was a disappointing afternoon on Saturday, but I actually felt we played alright in the first half after falling behind.
"We’re happy that there’s now another game on Tuesday and we don’t have to wait until Saturday to play."
“The second goal looked offside and then we went down to 10 men to make it even tougher for ourselves against a good side.
“But I said earlier in the season that when we do finally lose a game, we’re going to need to show a reaction.
“We’ve had good runs in previous years and then when we’ve been defeated, we haven’t been able to respond to that.
“So we’re happy that there’s now another game on Tuesday and we don’t have to wait until Saturday to play.
“The boys have been top quality overall, so we’re not going to get too down about one result. We’ll just move on.
“It was the same message from the manager – we’ve got to go away to Burton and try to put things right.”