Pompey ended their season on the road with only their third league win away from Fratton Park courtesy of a 2-1 win over ten-man Mansfield at Field Mill.
They were given a massive helping hand after Ritchie Sutton brought down Jed Wallace in the box during the first minute of the match. The Stags captain was shown a straight red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity and Matt Tubbs duly dispatched the resulting penalty.
Pompey dominated possession for the ret of the half against ten men but failed to make it count as Craig Westcarr blew his big chance one-on-one with goalkeeper Lenny Pidgeley. Paul Jones also had to make one outstanding save from point blank range to stop Rakish Bingham equalising.
The second half saw Pompey double their lead thanks to a long range strike from Wallace, although there was a huge slice of luck attributed to the goal as the ball hit a divot in the ground and bounced over Pidgeley.
Jack Thomas pulled one back for the hosts with a superb curling effort that Jones had no chance of saving. If you wanted to be critical then the defence could have closed down the youngster quicker, but there was no way of knowing that he would produce something like that.
Both sides had chances to score again in a match that was probably more entertaining than it had the right to be given what little was at stake but Gary Waddock's men held out for just their third win in all 23 away games in League Two.
The result keeps Portsmouth in 16th place in League Two and that's the lowest they can realistically can finish unless they lose next week and Accrington Stanley win 19-0 or something similar.
A win next week against York would see Pompey equal last season's tally of 59 points but matching the 13th placed finish would require Dagenham losing at Exeter and Oxford and Wimbledon dropping points to Newport and Cheltenham respectively, so it's likely that this season will be the worst in Portsmouth's history from a league position perspective.
That simply underlines the importance of getting the next managerial appointment right as another season as mediocre as this one cannot be accepted, especially as the club have announced their "frozen" season ticket prices which will actually see a vast number of supporters actually pay more for League Two football next season - but that's a rant for another day.