Sixteen minutes into the contest Yorkshire official Howard Webb deemed that Blues left back Stan Lazaridis pushed Steve Stone at the far post and David Unsworth duly scored from the resulting spot kick to cancel out Robbie Savage's 10th minute opener for Blues.
Mr Webb then had a chance to redeem himself when midway through the second half Linvoy Primus clearly made contact with his hand in the box only for the referee to wave away the claims of the Blues players - Stan Lazaridis being booked for his protests.
"I feel we were harshly done by," Bruce told Sky Sports after the 1-1 draw.
"I thought their penalty was very, very harsh and if he (the refereee) is going to be as petulant as that then he has to give handball against Linvoy Primus.
"Its those inconsistencies that make us irate. Apart from that I thought the referee handled the game terrificly."
Bruce was however pleased with the teams performance considering that Blues were fielding four new players in the starting eleven in Melchiot, Izzet, Gronkjaer and Heskey.
"When there's four people making their debuts then of course its going to take them a little while to settle," the Blues boss added.
"I thought Emile Heskey gave a great performance and Muzzy Izzet wasn't far behind him.
"It's going to take a little bit of time to bed them all in but there were signs there today which were pleasing and the more we play together the better, hopefully, we'll become."
Bruce's View: Portsmouth (a)
Bruce upset with penalty decision