Portsmouth v Sheffield Wednesday: A special hand to Wednesday supporters on their way to Fratton Park after mind-boggling Sky shambles

On arrival, its writer will disembark to wander across to another platform and jump on a train to East Croydon, followed by a further change en route to Fratton.

For a paid-up member of the media that’s part of a dream day job, but the fact is that on the most ideal of conditions on the sunniest of days, a Sheffield Wednesday supporter’s trip to Portsmouth is not the easiest. Or the cheapest. There are several Wednesday fans aboard.

All this is before you factor in the cold cup of sewage thrown in their face by television companies last month when it became clear that 500-mileish round trip – once moved from Tuesday to Wednesday for television coverage – was to be moved back to the Tuesday at short notice. For television coverage.

So hotels were cancelled, the longest of train journeys rearranged and then back again at no doubt great cost and inconvenience, a few weeks out from Christmas.

That the decision was based around ITV’s apparent hankering to ensure Plymouth Argyle’s 600-mile round trip to Rochdale took take place on Sunday lunchtime further boggles the mind.

It’s a cheap winner this, for any football writer to bang the drum of travelling supporters when faced with a fixture change, but this one is surely beyond the pale bordering into absurdity and flagrant disregard for the true custodians of the game.

‘Football without fans is nothing’ is a slogan given meaning when fans weren’t allowed into matches over the last couple of years.

Sheffield Wednesday supporters are not the only ones to have been taken for granted and this isn’t the only occasion even in recent memory. It’s high time they were treated better.