A much-desired home win was minutes from being in the bag - but Pompey contrived to concede an equaliser as Stevenage escaped from Fratton Park with a point.
Conor Chaplin had scored his fourth Fratton end goal of the season with a fine low finish with 13 minutes left to put Pompey on course for their first home victory in more than a month.
But a long throw three minutes into injury time saw Brett Williams direct a header over Aaron McCarey to give Stevenage a point.
It left Fratton Park feeling rather flat despite the fact the point saw Pompey narrow the gap on leaders Plymouth - who lost at Oxford - to two points.
Pompey had dominated large spells of the tussle with Teddy Sheringham's side although arguably didn't test keeper Jesse Joronen enough.
Man of the match Ben Davies sent in cross after cross but Matt Tubbs failed to connect properly with a couple, while Gary Roberts couldn't beat Joronen with a couple of low efforts on goal.
Enda Stevens, like his fellow full-back was getting forwrd often and effectively and one ball across the Fratton goalmouth in the second half could have been poked in by Roberts or Tubbs.
Caolan Lavery and Chaplin came on and both livened up the Blues and it was Chaplin who finally broke the deadlock on 77 minutes as he ran on to an Adam Webster pass and lashed the ball under Joronen.
Chaplin almost made it 2-0 after the keeper was caught out of position - only for Stevenage's last throw of the dice to come off for them.
Can Pompey put their home jitters behind them on Saturday against Mansfield? If they keep on dominating teams like this, victories in front of their own fans will surely follow.
Pompey: McCarey; Davies, Burgess, Webster, Stevens; Barton (Atangana 79), Doyle; Boco (Chaplin 71), Roberts, Bennett; Tubbs (Lavery 61). Subs not used: Murphy, Clarke, Hollands, Naismith.
Referee: Andy Woolmer
Attendance: 14,900 (133 away fans)
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