But first some notes on the match.
Match notes
The visitors secured three points through a Michael Chopra goal early in the first half, he reacted well to tap the ball home from close distance, after the ball had hit the upright.
Ipswich looked brighter than Pompey during that first phase of the game and created some good chances.
Perhaps the differential in 'recovery time' between Pompey's Saturday evening kick-off at Blackpool and Ipswich Town's abandoned match against Middlesbrough was playing a part in the proceedings.
The Championship is tough when you have a small first team squad, especially when the games come thick and fast, and Pompey were unchanged from Saturday.
Ipswich transfer window target Stephen Henderson made a couple of saves during the first half keeping out dipping, swerving, long-distance shots from both Emmanuael-Thomas and Chopra.
Pompey's best chance of the first half fell in the penalty area to Marko Futacs after good work down the right hand side by Tal Ben Haim. His shot blazed over the bar, but the referee Mr Deadman saw a deflection and awarded a corner.
The biggest disappointment of the first half was seeing Liam Lawrence limp off the pitch just before half-time with what looked like a muscle injury.
Lawrence has been playing well in the last few games in a more central midfield role so his loss for any prolonged period will be a blow.
Lawrence passed the captain's armband to Jason Pearce not by tossing it across the field but by walking over to him and putting it on his arm - this was good to observe, it showed some respect to the role.
Dave Kitson came on to replace Lawrence and the flexible Joel Ward dropped in to midfield.
HT: Portsmouth 0-1 Ipswich Town
Pompey had chances in the second half to salvage something from this game but it wasn't to be their night.
Kitson squandered a gilt-edged opportunity, shanking his shot in to the ground and seeing it fly away for a goal kick. If he'd made a better connection he surely would have scored.
Futacs also had chances: one shot flew over the cross-bar and a second effort from a free-kick, awarded in the 'D' after a foul on Greg Halford, went straight in to the wall.
Tal Ben Haim had one of those mazy runs he sometimes produces to get himself in to the penalty area but he saw his shot fire across the face of goal and away to safety for the vistors.
Michael Appleton is never afraid to 'go for it' with his tactical changes and it was good to see him throw on Benjani in place of the hard working Etuhu in the second half to change the formation to 4-3-3.
The most controversial moment of the match came just after the hour mark. Greg Halford launched one of his long throws, from underneath the South Stand, in to the penalty area. The Ipswich defenders failed to deal with the ball, it took a deflection and went in to the goal. But the Pompey celebrations were short lived as the referee disallowed the goal apparently because he felt the ball had gone in directly without a touch.
With the change to Pompey's formation te game became very open and Ipswich started to create more opportunities, the best being a shot that was rifled against the upright.
Pompey received a further blow in added time when Greg Halford limped off with an injury to be replaced by Adam Webster.
With five minutes of injury time played the referee drew the onfield proceedings to a close.
FT: Portsmouth 0-1 Ipswich Town
A special moment
Pompey fans had been urged before this game to 'Pack The Pack'. The postponement of the Hull City game, the only other home fixture before Pompey's day in court with HMRC on 20th February, raised expectations of a big night a little bit higher.
But let's be clear, expectations in terms of fan turnout were not met. The crowd of 14,330 was disappointing but perhaps not surprising. The attendance figure was pretty much on a par with the rest of the season to date and who can blame those Pompey fans who didn't attend: they've had enough; we've all had enough to be frank.
Crowd size aside, the atmosphere created was excellent. With the Pompey Chimes ringing out from three sides of the ground on occasions and the incessant chanting of "We will never die!" (to the tune of Knees Up Mother Brown), nobody who was there could be any doubt that this was one of those special Fratton Park nights.
It wasn't 'a Stockport County' under Alan Ball (that night we were far fewer in number although arguably just as loud!) and it wasn't 'an AC Milan' under Tony Adams (that night Fratton Park was packed for a special one-off European night against one of the biggest clubs in World football). This will simply go down in Pompey folklore as 'an Ipswich Town', the night when the Pompey players and manager Michael Appleton in particular created their own special moment.
After the final whistle many fans in the Fratton End stayed on and continued singing in protest at what has happened to Portsmouth Football Club in recent times.
It went on (and on!) for around an hour despite the requests on the tannoy for fans to leave.
With a great show of unity the players - led out by Joel Ward and Jason Pearce - and the manager, came out on to the pitch to applaud the fans under the reduced floodlights.
Appleton had come out on to the pitch at the request of the fans. He punched the air in a defiant gesture to salute and acknowledge them. Pride, passion, unity, understanding and togetherness it all came out there and then 60 minutes after the final whistle. That was the moment when this evening really achieved its special status as it encompassed why we will never die.
Portsmouth versus Ipswich Town: Stephen Henderson, Tal Ben Haim, Ricardo Rocha, Jason Pearce, Greg Halford (replaced by Adam Webster in the 92nd minute), Kelvin Etuhu (replaced by Benjani in the 79th minute), Liam Lawrence (c) (replaced by Dave Kitson in the 44th minute), Hayden Mullins, Joel Ward, Erik Huseklepp, Marko Futacs. Substitutes not used: Jamie Ashdown and Aaron Mokoena
Attendance: 14,330
Pompey MOTM: the official award went to the Pompey fans and who could argue with that?
Next up for Pompey: Barnsley away on Saturday 18th February at 3PM in the Championship.
