Sport will return at end of March - but when will Pompey fans be back at Fratton Park?

We now know outdoor sport - including organised adult and junior team sport - will be permitted from March 29 as long as Covid rates continue to fall.

Boris Johnson will outline later today more detail of how sport and other areas of our lives will be affected as lockdown restrictions ease in the coming weeks and months.

Ahead of his speech, trying to work out when football fans will be allowed back in stadiums is pure guesswork (and it could remain so after he has spoken, for who's to say he will cover that particular topic?). Is it too much to hope that by tonight we may have some idea of when Fratton Park will be filled - or at least partially populated - by Pompey fans once more?

We must hope the right people have made the right noises in the right places to put pressure on the government to put sport and recreation at the forefront of moves to get life back to normal.

I have written to my MP (Caroline Dinenage) again to ask her to put pressure on ministers and the PM himself to address the need to allow sport and its fans to return at a reasonably quick rate as Covid infections fall across the country.

I said among other things: ‘I take the view, and I know it is shared by many, that we should very soon be in a position to restart the process of letting people back out to play and watch sport, at all levels. As I have said before, this is vital on many levels - it is part of many people's everyday lives (for some, a very important part, and something that, when taken away, has left them struggling), it is beneficial to their health - and to sports clubs, having punters through the gates is of course essential if they're to survive.’

There is of course the chance that the #LetFansIn campaign will be overlooked in today's announcements. If it is, the campaign will just have to be stepped up.