South Coast Derby trips to Fratton Park seem to be all about the narratives. Those narratives of course are all about Pompey, the bestest fans, the bestest ground, the bestest atmosphere, the bested hostility and the bestest soap dodging c*** with the bell and all that. You can’t read an article about this particular game without it being some sort of massive rim job with those from the East side of Hampshire on the receiving end. What the media want is for Saints to be lambs to the slaughter and just buckle in the face of all of it. Our players are hopefully understanding all this and thinking “fuck that”.

Sadly, with our current set of players there is a very real chance that it may come to pass that they don’t fancy it and they don’t perform and they don’t manage the game well. When we last went down there in the League in 2011, we had leaders in our team like Sir Rickie, Adam Lallana, Jose Fonte, Kelvin Davis and Dean Hammond and the squad was filled with experienced players like Richard Chaplow, Fraser Richardson and Danny Fox. Compare that to now in terms of personalities and characters – there is no comparison.

It’s undoubtedly been the case this season that we have had many occasions to question the character of the players in red and white as they have collapsed at places like Hull, Middlesbrough, Oxford, Blackburn and Norwich. What’s to say that they are going to have the mental fortitude to not collapse at Fratton Park. Those defeat that we had a few weeks ago against teams in the bottom three might also be relevant as well as we basically weren’t up for the battle and didn’t impose ourselves on the game.

The win against Sheffield United however showed something different. It showed a team that was prepared to battle out a game to hold onto what they had earned earlier on in the game. We looked more compact as a team and we looked a bit more physical, with the likes of Ross Stewart, Jack Stephens and Welington coming into the team and it’s undeniable that the formation change helped us greatly.

To that end, though not remotely a religious man, I am saying a silent prayer to myself that Tonda does not fuck around with what served us so well on Wednesday night, because that is exactly the kind of performance that we are going to need to get the result we want from this game. If Tonda shits his pants and goes for the three central defenders, then I feel that we will just be inviting pressure and that’s the one thing we cannot afford to do in this game. We don’t want to give them any encouragement. What you absolutely cannot do in a Derby is to allow the home team to start well, maybe get an early goal and that in turn brings the crowd massively into it and from then on in, the day can go South very quickly. That’s exactly what happened when we got battered down there in 2005. Tonda has to have his big boy pants on and stand up today and get things right. That includes any dealings with John Mousinho, who of course, was a bit of a twat at St Mary’s earlier on this season. Tonda should be seeing this as a real Him versus Me situation that he has to win over the course of the 90 minutes.

Pride is everything in this game, but forgetting all that for a second, the result can be very significant to the outcomes for the respective clubs for the rest of the season, especially if we win. If we could win down there, then we will be feeling very good about ourselves and then you never know, we may be able to go on a run and sneak into the playoffs. If we win, it will also drop Pompey right into the shit in the bottom three. The fact that I can say that is significant because reagrdless of anythign else, they are a pretty shite football team. This is a very substandard Championship this season, and Pompey are currently in the bottom three, which tells you that they are not a good side. We are not much better of course but we are better. Their recent form is semi-decent and better than ours, but we need to put doubts in their mind and make them realize that we are better than them. We didn’t do that in the first game at St Mary’s, and we played with fear for some obscure reason.

The key tomorrow is to start well and silence the crowd. They did it to us at St Mary’s by wasting time from the first minute, and they were aided by the referee who didn’t want to make it a blood-and-guts game at all, and he ensured that that was never going to happen. If we get similar today, it might actually help us, but I bet we don’t. The way to win this game is to obviously get the first goal and then not give them any encouragement and not give them any foothold to build up any sort of head of steam.

I have largely avoided social media in the build up to this game, but you can’t help seeing some of it from Pompey fans. They love nothing more than commenting on Saints social media accounts and giving it the big one, whilst also getting their excuses in early because our budget is bigger etc and they’re coming out with the usual bollocks about how fucking brilliant they are as fans and the atmosphere and you’ll never have what we’ve got. Oh do fuck off. Everyone supports their club, that’s what you’re supposed to do, you fucking idiot. The main difference I find between Saints and Pompey fans is the Saints fans are a bit more humble and will never be shouting from the rooftops saying they’re the best or anything but many Pompey fans will shout that they are the best fans with the best ground and genuinely believe it. It’s fucking tedious. With any luck, we can collect all the receipts from comments like this and throw it back in their faces on Sunday afternoon.

The question the players want to be asking themselves is who wants to be the next Steve Moran? Who wants to be the next Micky Channon, Marian Pahars or James Beattie? Who wants to write their name in the history books as a Saints hero because it’s games against that lot, especially ones at Fratton Park, that define your legacy, even if you don’t achieve much else as a Saints player.

My message to the Saints players is just make sure you turn up and make sure you stay disciplined. Remember that it’s 11 against 11 and if we put in as much effort as they do, we will be better than them and it becomes likely that we win the game. Respond badly to a setback or respond badly to the atmosphere and noise then we will go under. Rise above it however and make yourself and tthe team, one that will be remembered in years to come.

Bring it on.