Southampton supporters faced with no competitive football for the next 5-6 weeks are set to change allegiances for that time, but they will not only change them once, but several times before we face Lincoln City on December 21st.
If you walk along Above Bar street today you might see some people wearing Saints colours, however what you won't notice is the Derby County supporters, they will be there though as this evening sees their team travel to Fratton Park in League One or as we used to call it Division Three, sometimes also referred to as Spiritual Home Of Portsmouth Football Club.
But why are supporters of the Rams in Above Bar you may ask yourself, the answer is simple and the reason is the World Cup being played in Winter.
Firstly it is very wrong and I need not delineate on the reasons why, we all know them, and they can be summed up in one word "Corruption" plus Quatar's record on human rights.
But it leaves us all with a big void in our lives for the final week or so in November and then December, that won't be filled until we return to match action when we face Lincoln City on December 21st.
Lincoln of course where the club were Portsmouth manager Danny Crowley started his managerial career in League football after taking them back up to League Two and a couple of seasons later League One before leaving them to step up to the Championship with Huddersfield which ended badly for him.
But I digress, Derby County supporters are out in force in Southampton today because they are Saints fans who have temporarily taken to being Deby supporters for the day and will be cheering on their new team via television this evening as they attempt to overtake Pompey and move up to 5th in League One.
DERBY COUNTY SUPPORTERS ARRVIVING AT 6.56 THIS MORNING AND CATCHING POMPEY BY SURPRISE.
But football fans are fickle, and I would prophesise that by Saturday morning most will be Ipswich fans during the midweek followed by turning to Milton Keynes Dons by next Saturday as Pompey try to progress in the EFL Trophy and then the FA Cup.
By Sunday 4th of December they will have changed again, this time to Wycombe Wanderers, the following weekend it will be Accrington Stanley who after all are everyone's favourite second team aren't they ? Exactly !
The last change of support will be on Saturday 17th December when they will once again become Wycombe Wanderers fans, however although most of us will be at Fratton Park in spirit, one Saints fan will be there in person, Wycombe striker and boyhood and indeed adulthood Saints fan Sam Vokes, he will be attempting to achieve the ambition of perhaps every Saints supporter, to score the winning goal over Portsmouth on their home turf and send them scuttling for the exits, it might be easier to achieve that aim by pressing the fire alarm bell, but it will be far more satisfying for Sam and his fellow Saints fans if he does that either by scoring a hat trick or failing that in the last minute.
STEVE MORAN A MAN WHO HAS ACHIEVED THE DREAM.
When that game is finished Southampton supporters can turn their interests back to their own team as we take on Lincoln and then return to Premier League action on Boxing Day.
They say if you want to know the Indian/Native American then you need to walk in their Moccasins, Saints fans will not exactly be doing that for the next month or so, in fact we will be more riding with the US Cavalry in this respect, but they will be finding out what it is like to be a Pompey fan, watching dire football and being burnt up inside by a hatred for your local rivals.
The next few weeks won't be exciting from a football point of view, but we can at least find some sympathy for the Blue Few by living their lifestyle, that were it is more about how your neighbours 20 miles away have got on than how your own team is doing.
A WARM PORTSMOUTH WELCOME
Of course as Scummers (Not an original insult I would point out, but one they copied from Arsenal when they played them in the FA Cup in 1971) we just "Don't get it " but then again they are still bitter from the situation their forefathers found themselves in whilst attempting to cross a Southampton picket line, they couldn't even get out of Terminus Station, having to be saved by the Army from a baying mob, of course they turned this one round and made it a Portsmyth, but anyone who googles Southampton Dock Strike 1890 will find out the real truth.
But again I digress, if you haven't realised that Pompey have a game against Derby County tonight and let's face it why would you, the BBC fixture list shows it as one game below Bahrain V Serbia in an International Friendly and just above Connah's Quay Nomads V Caernarfon Town in the Welsh League, then tune in to Sky Sports tonight to watch a bell rung randomly in the style of Quasimodo and ex Saints player David McGoldrick receive what they call a Good Scumming.
For those who truly Dont Get It, there is footage of some paint drying on BBC 2.