David Connolly's brace against Bury saw Pompey record back-to-back wins for the first time since mid-October and come off the bottom of League One.
As with many other Pompey matches this season, this was a game of two halves although this time it was the first half that proved to be poor with a much improved showing in the second.
Bury had a few chances the first period to have won the match by the break but the fans in the Fratton End would have seen plenty of the ball due to some woeful finishing.
Craig Fagan was guilty of a horrendous miss as he managed to spoon the ball high and wide from the edge of the six yard box. Mark Carrington and Steven Schumacher also had strikes from the edge of the penalty area but they sailed harmlessly over.
Despite not changing the side that won at Crewe last week, Guy Whittingham's men were not producing the same kind of performance and barely tested Trevor Carson in the Bury goal in an abject first half display.
Thankfully, a different Portsmouth team emerged from the Fratton Park dressing room after the break and they soon took the lead when Jed Wallace provided a cross to an unmarked Connolly who produced a simple finish to give the hosts the lead.
A second goal came soon after thanks to some good build up play from Patrick Agyemang and Dan Butler who got the ball to Johnny Ertl in the box. His curler was parried away by Carson but only to the feet of Connolly who took the ball down and finished with his left foot for his second goal of the game.
Bury mustered a couple of chances after that goal but were let down by their lack of quality all over the pitch. They are certainly one of the poorest teams to visit Fratton Park in recent history but that shouldn't take anything away from Pompey's second half performance.
The final whistle blew and it was good to see so many smiling faces whilst leaving the ground for once. A few may have been getting carried away thinking that Pompey could stay in League One despite still being eight points from safety but at least we're not at the bottom anymore.
A clean sheet to go with a win is a rarity too. Bring on Leyton Orient on Tuesday!
Pompey Player Ratings
Simon Eastwood: 6 - Nothing really dangerous to deal with.
Yassin Moutaouakil: 6 - Solid enough.
Ricardo Rocha: 7 - Made some timely blocks.
Gabor Gyepes: 7 - Looks a much more settled player now.
Dan Butler: 7 - Influential in the second half.
Liam Walker: 6 - Skills almost came off.
Therry Racon: 6 - Good on the ball.
Johnny Ertl: 7 - Worked very hard once again.
Jed Wallace: 7 - Improved as the game went on.
Patrick Agyemang: 7 - Caused the Bury defence some problems.
David Connolly: 8 - Two well taken goals.
Substitutes
Phil Smith
Adam Webster
Shaun Cooper
Ashley Harris
Jake Maloney (Connolly 90): N/A - Token substitution to give the youngster his league debut.