When Saints beat Pompey at the Dell in the FA Cup in 1996, Pompey's players in interviews admitted they were beaten before they walked out of the tunnel, time to let history repeat itself.
The truth is this season Pompey's players wont have experienced an atmosphere like St mary's on many occasions, indeed this will only be the second time that they have played in front of a crowd of over 30,000, the other occasion being their trip to Upton Park back in September.
So this is the type of game where the supporters can play there part, not hjust in the Northam End but in every part of the ground, whatever Pompey fans like to try and say about our support, the fact is that for over 50 years we have had far bigger average crowds than those at Fratton, sometimes verging on double their total and the blunt truth is a teams support is not just based on a bit more singing than another club, but on how big your home gate is.
Yes Pompey have Westwood and his crew that drum up (literally) a bit of atmosphere, but the fact is many lower league teams have a little group with a drum or bugle who stand up in games and get the crowd going, Torquay for instance and i have never heard them claim, nor be aclaimed the best supporters in the World.
I have to say that having been to every Championship club, most of them this season, I have rarely seen a singing section elsewhere as big as our group in the Northam, indeed most clubs seem to have a small section of a couple of hundred or so who stand up and sing, augmented by some of those near them who join in from time to time, even the fabled Fratton End is like this.
But nowhere have i seen an "end" where around 2,500 stand up and stay standing throughout the match, singing and encouraging the team, of course we are in good times at the moment, but the core of that group remained in place throughout the bad times and thats why we can be proud of our support, we waste our vocal chords on supporting our team, not shouting to all and sundry how good our support is.
So Saturday is the time to show it, lets make St Mary's rock, in the way we do every game, but this time lets make it loud and lets make it special, we dont need a bell or a drum or a bugle to get us going, all we need is the sight of our own team and our own stadium, if we do this and repeat that FA Cup afternoon of 1996 then we can get the same result.