Don't You Just Love The FA Cup?

Portsmouth find themselves in the fifth round of the greatest club competition in world football, their lowly league position has no doubt forced some fans into voting with their wallets as to whether they attend a cup tie. Two embarrassing attendances of eleven and ten thousand for the games against Coventry and Sunderland have lent their next opponents some ammunition to fire in the weeks approaching the game versus local rivals Southampton. Pompey won the cup in 2008 barely two years ago but we all know whats happened since then, three different managers, the squad scattered to the winds (mostly to Tottenham) and now the club teetering on the brink of financial oblivion.

The Portsmouth News website has had a mini invasion of Southampton fans on the comments boards all eager to point out that they are getting bigger attendances than Pompey and although it's sad it is nonetheless true. Where are all those tens of thousands of fans that thronged the streets and packed the common to welcome home the cup winning heroes? All gone it seems, I know there is a recession and times are hard but for less than ten thousand fans (the visitors brought six or seven hundred) at home for a cup tie is shockingly poor for a city of the size of Portsmouth.

The Battle of Hampshire at St Marys will have around four thousand Pompey fans there and I hope that the tickets are offered first to those who bothered to attend the previous two rounds and especially a priority for those who travelled to Coventry for the replay. Those who sat through the dire first match and sang their hearts out at the Ricoh Stadium deserve it. Likewise the fans who got behind their team against Sunderland when all too predictably they went one nil behind but witnessed an inspired second half performance. Whether the players kick started the fans or vice versa I'm not sure but a corner seemed to have been turned.

Local derbies are few and far between these days, the atmosphere is electric and even though it's a lunchtime kick-off this will be no different. I really miss the Pompey Southampton games and I'm really looking forward to this one, it could go either way. It really is too close to call, Portsmouth are the Premier League side but to be truthful they lack players of true quality and Saints are already on a run in the FA Cup and looking for more cup success are just ninety minutes from Wembley in the Johnstone's Paints Trophy.

If I were a betting man (which I am) I'd lump my cash on it being a draw which is something that Hampshire Constabulary will not want to see and neither will the residents of Fratton who well remember the scenes of violence the last time the sides met in Portsmouth. The historic facts are that Portsmouth have never beaten Saints in the FA Cup in four meetings but the cash boost of more than £400,000 from The FA and television will be handy for Pompey in these cash strapped times where they have a credit rating worse than Zimbabwe.