Owen Moxon certainly picked a great occasion to open his Pompey goalscoring account.
Derby were 2-1 up at a wet and windy Fratton Park when the January arrival from Carlisle came off the bench in the second half.
Had the televised encounter remained that way, then the visitors would have cut the gap on the leaders to two points.
But the advantage remains at five after Moxon hit a superb long-range strike into the net to ensure an entertaining contest ended all square.
He said: “I was coming on in a game with such importance and Derby were sitting in and looking to catch us on the counter-attack.
“So I just wanted to make an impact as best as I could and thankfully I was able to score my first goal for the club.
“The first thing on mind was that I had a man coming up behind me, so I needed to protect the ball and get away from him.
"I’m buzzing with that and it’s just a shame it wasn’t to earn three points, but it’s another game unbeaten."
“Once I did that, I just got my head down and hit it. I knew where the goal was and thought I had a good chance.
“I looked up and the ball was moving – I don’t normally strike them like that! But it was a great feeling to see it go in and then celebrate in front of the Fratton End.
“I’m buzzing with that and it’s just a shame it wasn’t to earn three points, but it’s another game unbeaten.”
Pompey controlled possession against their fellow promotion hopefuls and Moxon felt it could have been a better outcome.
He said: “The initial reaction was that we’re disappointed not to win because we dominated the game.
“But when you actually take a step back and have a proper look at it, it’s points that they haven’t gained on us.
“Now we move on to Saturday and we’re aware of the position we’re in, but we’ve done nothing yet and our feet are still on the ground.”
