Another home game, another win, another clean sheet. That's two in a row and is a bit too close to something called consistency for my liking. I do wish we'd get some warning or other when Pompey are going to win back-to-back games, so we could put some planning into the celebrations.

Still, a win next week would be three in a row and that's not happened all season so is clearly not going to this time. Or is it? Actually, maybe (say it quietly) Pompey are finding their best form at exactly the right time; maybe a top-three finish can still be ours.

I've said from the moment we first dropped into League Two nearly three years ago - you don't have to be brilliant to get promoted from this division;- you just need to keep the points and goals ticking over and find your momentum at the right time. Sure enough, for the past two seasons Pompey have not been brilliant - they have been far from it. This season, they've also been short of brilliance. But Pompey are at last threatening to prove my theory correct.

Let's not speak too soon. There are still plenty of opportunities for Pompey to cock it up. Dagenham - that's 24th-placed Dagenham - away next week is a prime contender, just the sort of fixture the Blues could lose after getting their fans all positive and everything in the games that have gone before it.

But you'd like to think, having blown the ideal chance to win three in a row for the first time when we crashed to a 3-0 home defeat to Newport County last month, the management and players will head to south-east London next Saturday knowing what a great chance the game presents Pompey.

A chance to turn up the heat, for the first time this year, on the top three and have them looking over their shoulders - not just generally but at Pompey. When Pompey are taking on the Daggers, Accrington will be at Luton, Plymouth will be at home to AFC Wimbledon and Bristol Rovers are at Northampton, who, if the O-level maths (grade B) I acquired in 1986 is worth anything, will, according to my calculations, kick off knowing a win could confirm their promotion and, in fact, the title.

It's not impossible that by the end of the afternoon, Pompey could be two points off the team in third and with a game in hand - and with Plymouth to visit Fratton next up. In other words - they could have automatic promotion in their own hands. I know, I know, I am jumping way ahead of where I should, but a few weeks after we were, what was it, 11 points off the top three, you can see the progress Pompey are making.

In a season when plenty of points have been chucked away by conceding equalisers, this time it was good to see that, as well as the seeing off comfortable home wins like that seen against Notts County eight days earlier, Pompey can - sometimes - hold on in the nervy, tight matches.

As much as Pompey deserved to beat Carlisle, they could easily have surrendered two of the three points as United spurned two very, very good chances when 1-0 down - one of them just a couple of minutes from the end. Admittedly the fact Carlisle didn't put either chance away was down more to their forwards' ineptitude than Pompey's resolute defending. But if Pompey got lucky at Paul Jones' end of the pitch, it was balanced out by bad luck at Michael Smith's end.

Smith did have Carlisle keeper Mark Gillespie to thank for spilling Kyle Bennett's curling shot into his path for the only goal of the game, but the big striker, who is fast winning over the Fratton fans with his work-rate as much as his striking skills, was unfortunate not to score other goals. Gary Roberts, Bennett and Adam McGurk could also all count themselves unlucky not to get on the sheet.

So, yes, Carlisle's small but hardy band of fans may well have travelled home claiming 1-1 would have been fair - but I'd counter that by saying 3-1 to Pompey would not have flattered us.

Talking of trips home, mine almost saw me career off the A32 when a tweeter to Express FM said Pompey should get a new left-back and dump Enda Stevens. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

I thought Stevens was one of Pompey's best players against Carlisle - defending solidly apart from one occasion when a mistimed tackle cost him a yellow card, and attacking well to get a number of decent balls in from the left touchline. The angry tweeter's view was that he is far too one-footed - thankfully the Express team pointed out that if Stevens had the ability he has and two good feet, he wouldn't be playing in League Two.

Stevens - one of our top four most consistent players of the campaign in my view - could easily have been named MoM; so could Smith, but the sponsors' award went to Bennett, and I was quite happy with that too. Increasingly the little winger is looking for the ball and is the go-to man when Pompey need a clever pass or a jinking run to get them in behind the massed ranks of a visiting defence.

Smith's goal gave Bennett another assist, yet still he attracts moans the moment he tries something that doesn't come off. I'd rather have him in the side, trying the tricks and flicks along with the more down-to-earth stuff that does hurt opponents, than a more conventional player who might not give the ball away as much but would certainly not create as much.

The midfield pair of Michael Doyle and Danny Hollands were excellent too, even if Hollands might want to consider a pass rather than a shot next time he sees the whites of a keeper's eyes. They have grown in stature as a partnership as the season has gone on and are now absolutely key to Pompey's success - as important as Roberts, Bennett or anyone else in more advanced roles.

At the back, the best compliment you can pay Christian Burgess and Matt Clarke is that you didn't really notice them. Both did their jobs; both helped Jones have a relatively-quiet route to his second straight clean sheet. How quickly things can change for a goalie - Jones was third choice and out on loan a couple of weeks, now he is No1 and Ryan Fulton and, when fit again, Brian Murphy might find it hard to depose him from his spot.

I do wonder if one other player deserves a bit of credit for this win, and in particular for the high-tempo start to the second half in which the Blues got the breakthrough. His name is Svetoslav Todorov.

As he walked out at half-time among a huge pack of former Pompey players, plenty of them legends, Toddy got a terrific ovation - even more so when he broke off from the main group as they had a group picture taken and went to shake a few Fratton End hands. It wasn't the first time he had peeled away to great effect in that penalty area.

You had to feel a bit sorry for Noel Blake, Kit Symons and other loyal servants who didn't get their names chanted, but that's Toddy for you - one of a kind, one of us, whose role in Pompey's life and times will never be forgotten.

His appearance lifted the crowd - the atmosphere at the start of the second half seemed the lift the players - and the job got done. I'm not going to give Toddy too much credit for it, though - that would be unfair on Bennett, Smith and Paul Cook and his staff, who went into this game knowing how important it was and rose to the challenge.

Can they do it again next week and get that elusive third win in a row? I have a little hunch that they can.

Pompey: Jones; Davies, Burgess, Clarke, Stevens; Hollands, Doyle; McGurk (McNulty 89), Roberts (Naismith 86), Bennett (Evans 90+3); Smith. Subs not used: Fulton, Webster, Close, Chaplin.

Referee: Charles Breakspear

Attendance: 15,416 (361 away fans)

by Steve Bone @stevebone1 on Twitter

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