36 cracking pictures of Portsmouth fans heading off from Fratton Park for south-coast derby v Southampton

Pompey fans’ wait for the south-coast derby v Southampton is finally over.

Today is match-day and already members of the Fratton faithful have met up so that they can make their way to St Mary’s for the midday kick-off with the help of a police escort.

All 2,700 Blues supporters going to the much-anticipated game were asked to attend one of three pick-up points this morning so that they could travel to Southampton together and as safely as possible.

Around 1,500 converged on Fratton Park at 7.30am ahead of their 8.30 departure. Twenty double-decker buses and coaches greeted those fans to take them to St Mary’s, with a further 16 coaches at Lakeside North Harbour and six at Winchester Park & Ride making up the travelling party that will be heavily supervised for the entire journey.

The News was at PO4 this morning to see the well-organised plan put into motion. And as you’d expect, there were plenty of supporters keen to get on the road so that they could see John Mousinho’s side in action against their fierce rivals.

We caught up with quite a few to get their thoughts on the game and the efforts being made to get them to St Mary’s.

Here’s some pictures of the early-morning get-together, plus video as fans began their journey to Southampton.

For your next Pompey read: Southampton v Portsmouth: Early team and injury news as 3 out and 1 doubt for south-coast derby