How Portsmouth's stadium announcer is preparing for an empty Fratton Park

But tonight there’ll be no crowd for the Fratton Park stadium announcer to pump into life.

Instead, Trumper will be presenting to an empty PO4 when the Blues take on Oxford in the League One play-off semi-final first leg.

The coronavirus crisis means the clash is being played behind closed doors, with just a few scores of people permitted to be inside the ground.

It'll be a surreal experience to see swathes of blue seats on the Sky Sports cameras. There wouldn't have been a spare ticket available had the world not been gripped by a pandemic.

Trumper’s been announcing at Pompey for seven years and admits it’ll be the strangest experience of his tenure.

But with fans watching from home, the 37-year-old knows he still has a job to do.

Trumper said: ‘It will be different because half of what I do is about getting the crowd ready for it.

‘When you announce the teams onto the pitch, you’re really trying to get the crowd up for the game.

‘But I imagine we’ll do things as normal as we can despite the fact that it won’t be normal at all.

‘We’ll still be announcing the players onto the pitch, we’ll still do the substitute announcement and goal announcements – all of the in-game stuff that I imagine will be for the people at home.

‘I think it would be a shame if we didn’t have anyone there as it’s nice to have that bit of normality to make it feel like a usual match-day experience.

‘If people have the crowd noise on then hear goal announcements then it’ll feel a bit more normal.

‘But, for me, it’ll be very different. I usually build the music up before kick-off but there’ll be no need for any great amount of music because there’ll be nobody in the stadium.

‘I’ve done this job for seven years and it will be the strangest night of all of them. Once the game starts, though, I reckon everyone will get into it and will become a normal football match.

‘People are going to be glued to it because it’s our biggest game since the last set of play-offs.

‘Promotion is what the club wants the the city needs.’

A tight affair is expected, with Pompey and Oxford drawing twice already this season.

But Trumper is feeling optimistic heading into the clash.

He added: ‘I think that we’re going to win and I'd like to think by a two-goal margin.

‘That will give us a buffer heading up to Oxford for the second leg.

‘Everyone seems to be in good spirit and training since returning has gone quite well.

‘The players are feeling fresh so I reckon we’ll be win by two goals tonight.’