Saints will be hoping for a repeat of their win at Craven Cottage in the FA Cup 8 years ago, but will Tonda Eckert again be prioritising a promotion push over a run in the FA Cup, we will find out Sunday lunchtime.

It is hard to believe that it was January 2018 when we travelled to Fulham in the 3rd round of that season's FA Cup, back then a goal from James Ward Prowse after 29 minutes gave us a narrow 1-0 win to put us through to the 4th round.

Bizarrely there are 3 players in our current squad who were on duty 8 years ago, Alex McCarthy, Jack Stephens & Oriol Romeu, although, only the latter two are in line for a part in this game with McCarthy on the injured list at present.

The make up of Tonda Eckert's side is the big question, in the last round he intimated that he would "Go strong" as he likes to say, but the starting line up did not have a single player who at the time of the game a first choice in his starting line up.

But it did highlight the strength of the squad and I would expect that Tonda Eckert may well employ a similar line up at Craven Cottage, although I think he may well utilise a strong subs bench.

Sadly long gone are the days when the FA Cup meant something, although once you hit the semi finals it is strange how seriously the big clubs take it when they realise that they could be without European football qualification through their league position.

I think Newcastle may well be taking their game at Manchester City a lot more seriously than Manchester City later today

But will Fulham be taking it as seriously, they two harboured hopes of a European qualifying position in the Premier League, although 4 defeats in their last 6 games have seen that falter a little.

Certainly Tonda Eckert seems to think that they will be rotating their squad for this one and he had this to say in his pre match comments to the media:

"We have looked at what Marco Silva and Fulham do normally. If they play against teams that are a league below, they make quite a few changes.

"They've also been carrying a couple of injuries, so we'll see what they bring back to the team. I'm very sure that they will be a very competitive side.

"They will have some quality on the pitch, and that also goes for us."

However it remains to be seen that Eckert himself will do with his own squad, he has often said that he sees the FA Cup as a good way to build up momentum and at Doncaster he did that to a degree.

But against Leicester it was a different story, although the starting line up was quite experienced, it was very much a reserve team line up to use a phrase rarely used these days.

Although he had first team players on the bench, when it came to trying to win the game, he left them there and brought on the kids, they saw him through, but the Foxes were a Championship side in a poor run of form, Fulham even with a much changed side will be a different proposition.

Eckert had this to say when asked in the youngsters would once again be getting a run out:

"The game is a little bit different. It comes up at a different part of the season, a different week that we come from," he said when asked if academy players will return to the squad.

"There was no midweek game for us, so we've had a whole week to prepare. So I think that the Fulham game will look a little bit different."

When asked about injured players returning he said:

“Jay Robinson and Wely are still going to take a little bit longer but Ross Stewart is going to be involved, so that’s a positive, It’s a big game coming up for us, so we’ll make sure that we go strong, and we are very well prepared to go into the next round. I’m sure that we will leave everything out on the pitch on Sunday.

“The good thing is that we had a week that already feels like a break even though it’s only a week. There hasn’t been too many weeks where you have seven days to actually prepare for something coming up, so I feel that we are in a very good condition to go into this block of five games.

“I think that this game comes at different part of the season [to the Leicester cup fixture]. There was no midweek game for us so we’ve had a whole week to prepare, so I think the Fulham game will look a little different."

So the manager has said the right things, but as we know in the modern game it is all about subterfuge, keeping the opposition guessing up to the time the team sheets get exchanged.

The only worrying thing for me in these words to the media is about Ross Stewart being involved, the Scottish striker needs to be used sparingly, after playing for 71 minutes against Charlton recently, Stewart was rested in the midweek game a few days later against QPR.

He came off the bench in the 68th minute with the Saints 4-0 up and the game already won, the big question was Why ?

There was absolutely no point in risking him and that point was proved when a few days later he was on the injury list for the trip to Sheffield Wednesday.

Now it seems that he will be back in the squad and "Involved" for the game against Fulham and with an important League game at West Brom on Wednesday and then Coventry on Saturday, the question is again WHY?

Ross Stewart struggles to play full games and certainly even when fit, three games in a week is a big ask, coming back from a niggle, this is one game that Ross Steward needs to sit out to make sure that he is able to maximise him minutes in the two games coming up in the League.

It would be nice to win the game against Fulham, it would be great to get through the quarter finals and have a day out at Wembley in the play offs, but that is not the priority, so I hope that Tonda Eckert is just playing mind games with some of his pre match comments.

I expect that the team line up will pretty much resemble the team that started against Leicester City in the last round, but with a few more experienced players on the bench, if the name Ross Stewart is not on that list, then I for one will be relieved.

Once again Saints fans will be travelling in big numbers, around 5,000 will be making the trip to West London, another couple of thousand will make the trip to West Brom and 3,000 to Coventry on Saturday, that only a week after over 3,000 went up to Sheffield.

So to once again turn up for 3 games with difficult kick off times making it hard to get to, our away support has held up and will be once again be backing the team in their droves.

Our friends at the East end of the M27 love to tell us and indeed anyone else who will listen that they are the best supporters in the world etc etc,

But I saw a picture of their fans in this seasons game they played as Sheffield Wednesday and they had around half the number that we took last week.

If support is based on having a man dressed up as a clown and ringing a bell whilst drunkenly shouting Scummers Scummers Scummers and songs containing the word, then yes indeed Portsmouth Football Club are the best fans in the World.

But it isn't, it is based on turning up in big numbers home and away and supporting your team, something we have been doing this season and for many previous seasons, we are perhaps not the best supporters in the World, but the numbers over the past 65 years show that we have been the best supporters in Hampshire for most of that period.

All Photos Via Reuters