I haven’t detected so much excitement among Pompey fans about the start of a new season since we were about to embark on our Premiership adventure.
Which is ironic, as that is the last place most Pompey fans want to be right now.
The feel-good factor comes not so much from the anticipation of what the players might achieve on the field this season (though more of that later) as the sense that this really is a new beginning.
The fans (rather than mysterious businessmen with no affinity with us) now own the club. Well, some of them do.
And one of the challenges for the incredibly hard-working bunch who have made that possible is not to alienate those equally loyal supporters who have decided, whether through necessity or philosophy, not to hand over their £1,000 to be part of the Pompey ownership.
There is a danger they might feel left out; second-class fans.
But the early signs emanating from a revitalised Fratton Park are that this is an inclusive, community club, by the fans for the fans.
From the price of the drinks to the Pay 4 A Pompey Pal scheme (via the revamped toilets), there is a “can do” air coming out of Fratton Park which should go a long way to carrying the club through the rockier moments of the demanding times ahead... especially if events on the pitch fail to match the worryingly high expectation that I keep reading about.
I’m also impressed by chief executive Mark Catlin’s comments on the need to keep Pompey’s budget within sensible limits.
I love the openness and sentiments. I just hope that pressures – commercial and performance – don’t tempt the board to prise open the credit-card wallet that little bit more than is good for everyone connected with the club.
Throughout the ownership journey started by a handful of Pompey Supporters Trust members, I have remained an interested – if somewhat sceptical – onlooker.
Sceptical not that their hearts weren’t in it or that their sums were wrong, more at the need for so many fans to back up their pledges with the real money required to make the club a going concern at such a difficult time.
But if the figures appearing on Twitter are anywhere near accurate – and I am still awaiting confirmation from the club that that is the case – the vast majority of supporters who promised to buy shares are actually doing just that.
Credibility
And that is after more than 10,000 of them also forked out for season tickets for Pompey’s debut season in League Two – admittedly on generous repayment terms but at much the same price as last season, when a supposedly higher standard of football was on display.
Shouting about how wonderful Pompey’s fans are takes you only so far.
As I’ve said before, the wit-spattered support offered to Pompey’s nascent Premiership side during an FA Cup pasting by a rampant Arsenal spoke more loudly than songs about how awful the opposition must be if they fail to score against us in the first couple of minutes.
Or the half-time booing at more than one home game last season.
The season-ticket sales, the reported pledge-conversion figures give greater credibility to Pompey fans’ reputation.
But the excitement that I feel building as we approach that first League Two fixture tells me even more about what a football city Portsmouth really is.
I have witnessed the generosity of spirit pervading the city at the moment, in return prompting me to make a gesture of my own (albeit on a totally different scale) to a fellow fan.
It’s an environment that must be the envy of so many other sets of supporters, even those at some Premier League clubs.
There is a sense of momentum building at Fratton Park and among its followers.
But will it last if Pompey don’t run away with the league, as a growing number seem to be expecting?
Even fans of other clubs view the calibre of player we have somehow persuaded to sign (or re-sign) and talk of a foregone conclusion (not to mention the dreaded bookies’ favourites tag).
How Pompey’s fans react to disappointment will tell us much more about their right to be regarded highly among their peers – and may well tell us much about the club’s chances of succeeding in its new guise.
Many of those fans have helped give Pompey another chance.
Whether they stay this time through the bad times as well as the good will do much to shape the future of the new Pompey.