Portsmouth's hopes of welcoming fans back to Fratton Park dealt massive blow by the government

That’s after Prime Minister Boris Johnson backed up Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove’s announcement on BBC Breakfast this morning that plans to begin reintroducing supporters to sporting events from 1 October will not go ahead.

Indeed, in a statement to Parliament this afternoon, the PM said the planned return could be on hold for six months due to fears over a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Last weekend the EFL ran a serious of test events in selected grounds, with a capacity of 1,000 spectators allowed in.

It gave hope that fans, although limited in number, could make their way back on match days.

That also included Pompey, who were hoping to take part in the pilot scheme for this weekend’s round of games.

Their League One fixture against Wigan at Fratton Park fixture was identified a possible host ground for the latest test events.

However, that will now be knocked on the head as the government prepares to introduce new lockdown restrictions in a bid to reduce the spread of Covid-19.

Prime Minister Johnson told Parliament: ‘We have to acknowledge that the spread of the virus is now affecting our ability to reopen business conferences, exhibitions and large sporting events, so we will not be able to do this from October 1 and I recognise the implications for our sports clubs which are the life and soul of our communities.’

He added: ‘We will spare no effort in developing vaccines, treatments, new forms of mass-testing but unless we palpably make progress we should assume that the restrictions that I have announced will remain in place for perhaps six months.

‘For the time being, this virus is a fact of our lives and I must tell the House and the country that our fight against it will continue.’

Confirming plans for a staged return of fans would be ‘paused’, Gove told the BBC: ‘We were looking at a staged programme of more people returning - it wasn't going to be the case that we were going to have stadiums thronged with fans.

‘We're looking at how we can, for the moment, pause that programme, but what we do want to do is to make sure that, as and when circumstances allow, get more people back.

‘The virus is less likely to spread outdoors than indoors but again it's in the nature of major sporting events that there's a lot of mingling.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

Thank you for reading this story. The News has launched a new subscription offer which gives you unlimited access to all of our Pompey coverage.

You can subscribe here to get the latest updates from Fratton Park, transfer news and expert analysis from our team of Pompey writers.

Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism on your behalf for our city.