Muzzy Izzet was pleased to put 45 minutes of first-team football under his belt after replacing Jiri Jarosik three minutes before half-time.
It is the first decent run-out Izzet has been given this campaign and he was forced to work overtime as Nicky Butt's dismissal left them a man short.
Nevertheless, he conceded that covering the extra ground will stand him in good stead as the season progresses.
The 30-year-old certainly staked a claim for a starting spot in tomorrow night's game with Scunthorpe and, if he performs like he did at Portsmouth, he will be firmly in Steve Bruce's thoughts for next week's vital home game against Liverpool.
"Hopefully, I will play tomorrow night, but we will just see what happens," said Izzet.
"It was my first game back where I felt I was given a decent run-out and it is nice to be part of the team again.
"It can be tough only playing for 15 minutes at the end of a game as you are cold and maybe the team isn't performing as well as we would like.
"Sometimes it is hard to come on do anything but this run-out It helped my fitness as you sometimes have to work harder with ten men, but it was nice to be part of the team again.
"Coming on and then Nicky being sent-off three minutes later wasn't the perfect scenario, but no one really saw it. We were defending a free-kick so everyone was concentrating on that. And I think it was only the linesman who saw it.
"When the referee goes over to consult his linesman it doesn't bode well and we knew that once Nicky had got sent off we would be up against it, but I thought we performed well in the second half.
"For the first 20 minutes they were going to throw everything at us, but I thought we held out quite well and even created a couple of chances that, on another day, we could have scored."
"It is another point on the road and I don't know why our away form has been better than our home form.
"Maybe we haven't started games as we would have liked, as regards getting an early goal.
"We have been up against it but that can turn round in one result and kick start our season.
"I am getting there in terms of match-fitness and every minute is beneficial to me.
"I played 90 minutes in a reserve game on Monday and the 48 minutes at Portsmouth will have helped too."
