The Only Problem Is That Fratton Park Is A Noisy Place

Sir Alex Ferguson will be free to deliver his pre-match team talk in the dressing-room, maintain telephone contact with coaches Mike Phelan and Rene Meulensteen, and address Manchester United players at half-time because the purpose of the ban is merely to prevent him from coming into contact with the match officials during the course of the game.

However, he is concerned the noisy Portsmouth fans could make his touch-line ban even worse by drowning out his attempts to communicate with his assistants.

"We have got our communication lines in place for the game. The only problem you've got is that it's a very noisy place, Fratton Park."

"It's one of these old stadiums, the stands are a bit rickety nowadays and the directors' box is towards the home end where all the drums and noise is going on! It's a good racket and a terrific ground. But we should be OK."

"It's not easy to go to Portsmouth. Obviously they have a new manager, so you would imagine there will be a response, as you always get from a team with a new manager."

"We also recognise the atmosphere at Fratton Park, it is a great football ground. You need to deal with that, so it should be a very hard game for us."

On the other hand, Sir Alex has backed Avram Grant's appointment at Portsmouth.

"Avram is a football man. We know him very well from his time at Chelsea. He's very experienced and I'm sure he will get the right reaction from his players. We've kept in touch quite a lot and he will be glad to get back into management. But he has got a challenge because when your team is bottom of the league you've got a real task on your hands. But hopefully he can manage that."

"Portsmouth have some very good players. I've watched videos of their games and they might be in a false position. But being bottom of the league often causes a reaction from owners of clubs. They don’t like to see their team at the bottom, that's the danger position."

"If you're third or fourth bottom they think everything could be OK. But when they see their team bottom, it creates a different imagination in their mind of where they're going to be next season, a dread of where they could end up. And that often leads to a change of manager."