Myles Peart-Harris certainly picked a good time to open his goalscoring account for Pompey.
The game was approaching the hour mark, with Kusini Yengi’s penalty just before the break cancelling out Danny Andrew’s opener for Cambridge at Fratton Park.
Having started the second half strongly, the hosts were just looking for a spark of inspiration to wear down their stubborn opponents.
And it arrived when Yengi and Paddy Lane combined, with the latter’s cross turned home by a stretching Peart-Harris.
The on-loan midfielder said: “Managers have always told me to arrive in the box and it’s a part of the game that I work on quite a lot.
“It hadn’t quite been working out, but the gaffer and Jon Harley told me to stay patient and thankfully the ball has got to me.
“I felt it was important for me to break my deadlock and so hopefully I can now keep going and score some more.
"The manager has shown a lot of trust in me and given me a chance to perform and help us get three points, which is the main thing."
“It didn’t go my way on Saturday, but it’s normal for every player to have an off day and that was my response.
“The manager has shown a lot of trust in me and given me a chance to perform and help us get three points, which is the main thing.”
A fine strike from Abu Kamara sealed a 3-1 victory for Pompey that keeps their lead at the League One summit at six points.
Peart-Harris said: “It wasn’t our best team performance, but we still showed a lot of quality at times. It was a mature showing.
“We were quite sharp in the first 10 minutes and then Cambridge slowed things down and we lost our rhythm.
“But we came alive again, started the second half well and then didn’t stop there, going on to get the third.
“Now we want to keep going – there are 13 cup finals left of the season and we’ll be trying to win every one.”