I am blaming the little green men. And I don't mean the chaps in Plymouth Argyle shirts. No, it's the Martians. It's their fault.

I think what must have happened is a group of fellas from Mars landed in their spaceship on Portsea Island last week and commanded someone at Fratton Park to show them what the football club was all about, but to do so in the space of a few days. They didn't want to hang about on Earth too long, they'd heard about someone of the things the powerful humans had been up to lately and wanted no part in it.

So Pompey were left with two games to demonstrate what it is that sets PFC apart from the rest. And boy did they do it.

The Martians could have got just as strong a flavour of Pompey life on the second weekend in April 2010 – when Pompey were relegated from the Premier League 24 hours before beating Harry's Spurs to reach their second FA Cup final in three seasons.

As Peter Drury famously said on ITV to describe footage of the blue masses going mad at that Wembley semi: 'The life of a Pompey fan, emotionally draining... one way or the other.'

It's as true now as it was then, as Pompey's past two games at Fratton Park have shown. In fact you can take it back one game further – the visit to Luton, then bottom of the table and without a win almost since Lorraine Chase was singing about their airport, was the latest in a long line of Pompey matches that have been preceded by most Blues fans saying 'yep, you can see what's going to happen here'.

Sure enough we proved the perfect opposition for a side desperate to end a long winless run and a well-below-par Pompey effort at Kenilworth Road ended in a 1-0 defeat.

Eight days later, we were treated to one of the great Fratton Park occasions of recent times. For me, the win over Leeds was – in terms of result, performance and atmosphere as a whole – unrivalled by anything we've seen since that night against AC Milan.

I'm not saying it topped the night 11 months ago when we won promotion and the League One title by beating Barnsley – that was obviously more special in terms of the achievement clinched. Neither was it more memorable than the Cheltenham let's-win-the-Lerague-Two-title-after-being-top-for-20-minutes day.

But everything about the Leeds game showed Pompey – as a club, a team and a force - at their best: the sun shone, FP looked fantastic, the crowd were superb from start to finish, the team rose to the occasion, rode a bit of luck and ended up deserving those points. It was a ninth home win in 12, it took Pompey to 42 points and was a huge step towards securing Championship status for next season. And I'm pleased to say I'd predicted that very result in my piece last week on Pompeysound.

So why then, even as the dust was still settling on a famous Fratton win, were so many of us thinking about Plymouth at home and fearing the worst?

Beating Leeds then losing to Plymouth was so unlikely, it was likely. Anyone check what the odds were on that and have a few quid on it? I'm not sure any other team in the division could or would have done it. But Pompey? Oh yeah, Pompey can beat the best and suffer woe v the worst. Been doing it for years, guv.

I don't think the performance against Plymouth was anywhere near our worst of the season – in fact I can think of three home performances (v Millwall, West Brom, Sunderland) that were worse, let alone some of our calamitous efforts on the road. We had possession and chances – and I thought there was plenty of effort.

But when we didn't get an early goal – a commodity that has served us so well in massive home games like Stoke and Cardiff recently – you could feel the nerves on the pitch and in the stands; the growing sense of knowing what was coming.

Nico Schmid made one brilliant save to keep out a Plymouth opener before the inevitable happened, and before we could reassure ourselves that, in a long second half shooting towards the Fratton End Pompey were bound to rescue tt, it was 2-0. And that felt terminal.

John Mousinho's changes surprised me but might have worked on another occasion. It took me most of the rest of the half to work out whether we were playing 3-4-3, 4-2-3-1, 2-5-3 or something else. And I'm still not sure now.

When Adil Aouchiche's superb strike hit the top corner and 11 added minutes were signalled, a point looked on. But in truth, Pompey didn't make the most of the momentum or the added time and Plymouth rode it out without any real scares.

If the team performance v Leeds was a 9.5 out of 10, this was a 5.5 out of 10 – on a night when a 7.5 out of 10 would probably have been enough for the victory.

So, before the Luton game, had you been offered three points out of nine, would you have taken it? Most would not – they'd have wanted five or six. But put the Luton game in past tense, and before the Leeds clash, would you have taken three out of six? I think I would have done, under the illusion they'd have come from beating Plymouth after losing to Leeds.

But football's not about being able to choose your results, or even the teams you take a set number of points from. Which is why Pompey have ended a crazy week only seven points above 22nd-placed Derby, and only nine points ahead of 24th-placed Plymouth, when it could have been 10 and 15 points ahead respectively.

It puts a bit of pressure back on Mousinho and his men ahead of the visit to Preston – not least because after that there's a fortnight's international break. You would not want to go into that period of no games on the back of two losses in four days. And of course if we do get done at Deepdale it will be three defeats in four games.

I am still fairly relaxed about our situation and our (very good) chance of staying up, but it's not in the bag yet. All the sides below are still capable of winning games – as a few of them have shown this week. We need to carry on adding to our own total, regardless of what they do.

I'd like to say that with Derby and Hull still to visit Fratton, it's very much in our own hands.

It is, but if recent and ancient history have told us anything, it's that Pompey won't save themselves by condemning other strugglers; they'll do it by beating Blackburn, Watford and Sheffield Wednesday, or some other unlikely combination of results.

For starters, a draw at Preston would do nicely, I think. Then after the break, it will be eight games to go for everyone and the picture will be clearer.

It would be lovely if we could be mathematically safe with two or three games to go, but I've just had a sneak preview the Martians' Pompey dossier and it says anyone expecting things to be simple from here on in has not been paying attention.

PUP!

Photo: Action Images

Portsmouth Polls